Purposely Accidental
by fannypacked
Summary: AU Tenten's life was simple before she met Neji. He complicates things to say the least. To add to that, the father to her 5-year-old son suddenly shows up one night. She finds herself wondering whether meeting Neji was coincidental or not. NejiTen Cmplt
1. Two Different People

**A/N:** This is really just an experiment.  
Because I'm not too great with manipulating other people's characters..  
But this is my first fic with no OCs as main characters,  
Also let's pretend it's set in Japan.  
But the institutional system is Canadian (or American) because that's all I know.  
Just saying..  
Reviews are appreciated :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto.

* * *

First there was a sound of pen scribbling on a hard surface. Then after that there was the sound of the paper being scrunched up, and quickly following that was the sound of it being thrown into the wastebasket. The last sounds were a groan and a 'thunk' made from a head hitting the wooden surface of the desk. 

Before anything else could happen, Hinata poked her head around the door to see what her cousin was doing. Since the front of the desk was facing her, all she could see was his long brown hair sprawled on top of scattered papers.

"N-Neji-nii?" After so many years she still hadn't lost her stutter, though it wasn't nearly as bad as it once was. A moment of indecision passed and she asked her question. "What's w-wrong?"

The twenty-two-year-old Hyuuga lifted his head slowly and pushed his hair behind his shoulders. After taking another sheet of paper and picking up the pen again, he said, "Why is it so hard to write a simple Christmas card to your father?"

Neji sighed and brainstormed again. The card had to be meaningful, after all Hiashi had believed him worthy and had given him the company when it was originally meant for Hinata, who was the heir to the company's throne. It was not surprising; he had always been more capable than her in many ways then one. Even with that bonus, it was still surprisingly difficult to put words on paper that would satisfy his uncle.

"Uhm, Neji-nii, Christmas is a month a-away, why are you writing the card now?" Hinata knew better than to worry; her cousin tended to stress over things when it came to her father. But she couldn't help it, writing a Christmas card in November was odd, even for Neji.

"Because I'll need a month to scavenge the words good enough to impress Hiashi-sama." He paused in his thinking then he looked up, locking his pale eyes with her identical ones. "Was there something you needed, Hinata?" There was once a time when he hated his younger cousin, but that time had passed and he treated her like a sibling.

"Oh right, there's a phone call for you. I think its Lee-san on line one. Uhm, s-should I tell him you're not here?" Neji smiled, she was a sensible girl. Lee would only annoy him at a time like this, or at any time for that matter.

"Hai, thank you. Also please tell Hiashi-sama that I'm leaving for tonight, I need a walk to clear my head." He gathered up his many papers and threw them into a semi-neat pile at the corner of his desk.

"I will. Are you sure you should go out? You didn't d-drive today and it's b-beginning to snow." Hinata gestured to outside the window where snowflakes had started drifting toward the ground. Neji turned as well, and stared outside for a minute. Then he stood up and walked to the door to take his jacket off the hanger.

"Odd that it's snowing in November, but it's fine. I'll see you tomorrow, Hinata." He nodded once to his cousin then with long strides, he was out the door and in the elevator to go down. It wasn't until he was outside that he realised he forgot to bring his briefcase. After a moment of hesitation he decided against going back to retrieve it and began walking down the busy streets to get to his house.

When the wind started to blow his hair around everywhere, Neji stepped out of the way from other people and stopped. From his pocket he pulled out a piece of string and tied his hair into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He really needed to cut it, but just thinking of parting with his hair made him frown.

After her was sure his hair wouldn't come apart he rubbed his hands together, trying to get them warm. When he was about to leave, he saw a display of colourful lights out of the corner of his eye.

As he looked at the display, he wasn't watching where he was going and walked straight into someone.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Tenten looked up releculantly from her work when she heard the phone ring. It was getting late and her secretaries should have all left by then. She considered not answering the phone, but the fact that there was a chance it was a work call made her pull off her gloves and walk over to her desk to press the speaker button on her phone.

"Hello?" She somehow managed to hide the agitation in her voice.

"Tenten? Are you seriously still there? You need to stop over working yourself." Ino's giddy voice drifted out of the speakers making Tenten sigh quietly in frustration.

"Sorry Ino, but I really need to finish analyzing these weapons. This could be a new historical discovery! And you seriously need to stop calling me at work, that's why I have a cell phone." As soon as she said this she remembered that her cell was lying at home on the table beside her bed. Needing something to do, she tossed her rubber gloves into the trashcan and started organising the table so it was perfectly clean.

On the phone line Ino sighed. "There's no point in a cell phone if you don't ever turn it on. Listen, Ten, you have a kid to think about. You're starting to be one of those people who let their work take over their lives. Come on, you're training with a successful archaeologist and you're only twenty-two. Also, it's been like forever since you've had a boyfriend. You seriously need to get out more." Then there was a short pause. "Which brings up the reason I'm calling. There's this new café opening tomorrow down the street from my apartment, me and Sakura are planning on checking it out, you game?"

"What about Hinata?" She stopped cleaning and sat on her desk. Though she was still annoyed with the blonde girl, talking to her made her almost completely forget about work.

Ino giggled. "I asked her, but she said she was busy tomorrow. Do you think she finally got the courage to ask Naruto out?"

Tenten smiled and shook her head, and then she remembered that Ino couldn't see her. "Our Hinata? Nah. So why are you so pumped about this café? A new one opens every week, so why don't you go to their grand openings?" She frowned when she heard Ino giggle again.

"This one is called the _Akatsuki _café. That ring a bell?"

It actually did, but Tenten couldn't quite place where she'd heard that name before. Then it hit her. "Wasn't there something about that in college? It was like, a group of really talented people or something. Why would they make a café?"

"Beats me, apparently it's a joke and they want to see how it hits off. But that's not the point. I heard that Uchiha Itachi-kun is going to work there, and if he's as yummy as his brother then I'm not passing up the chance to talk to him!" Ino gushed. Then, "Oh sorry Ten, I've got to go. Meet at my place tomorrow at noon-ish, kay? See you soon, chick." Then there was a click to signify that Ino shut her cell phone.

Tenten reached over and clicked the button to turn the speakerphone off. Then she thought back to the beginning of the conversation and realised Ino was right. She really was starting to let her job take her over. She walked back to her lab where she was previously studying an arrowhead, which seemed to date back to around 150 B.C. She turned off the lights and locked up for the night. Then she went to her desk and grabbed her jacket and shoulder bag.

Within five minutes she was starting up her little blue Cobalt (**1**), which was a graduation gift from her parents. Pulling out of the buildings parking lot, she made a right turn to head home. Before long, she saw the lights of downtown pop up on the horizon. When she reached it, she drove slowly to avoid hitting any of the numerous amounts of pedestrians.

As she drove, a brightly lit shop caught her interest. Reading the sign, she noted it was a toyshop. Then without thinking, she slid her vehicle into a free spot and got out. After paying the parking metre, she walked into the shop.

The music sounded Christmassy, even though it was still late November. It was incredibly colourful and behind the counter Tenten spotted a small train set that she thought her son would love. Turning to the cashier, she asked, "How much for that?"

"It just came in, so about 5000 yen." (**2**)The girl said, popping her bubblegum. "But if you wait till the holidays then it'll probably go down. You know all those Christmas sales."

Tenten smiled. "No it's okay, I don't feel like waiting that long." Pulling out her debit card and handing it to the girl she said, "I'll take one set."

She waited a while for the receipt, she signed it and walked out with her purchase.

When she walked out the door she checked her watch. In that split second where she wasn't watching where she was going she somehow managed to collide into someone.

* * *

**A/N:** Continue, yes, no, maybe so?  
Opinions are grealty appreciated.

(**1**) a Cobalt is a car for those of you who didn't know or didn't guess. Chevrolet (:  
(**2**) 5000 yen is approximately 50 bucks.

Thanks for reading, reviewers get a cookie!  
:D  
**fanny-kun**


	2. Unexpected Reunion

**A/N:** Wow, I got a lot of feedback on my first chapter.  
So therefore I decided to continue.  
This chapter might explain some things...  
I'm really making it up as I go along, but I have a basic plot in my head (:  
And yes Tenten has a son, a lot of people stated that.  
_Flashback is in italics_  
Enjoy chapter two :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto.

* * *

"I'm sorry, are you alright?" Tenten had managed to fall over, and she now took the pale hand that the person who crashed into her offered and pulled herself to her feet.

She let go of the hand, and dusted off her jacket, which had powdery white snow clinging to it. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that." Only then did she look into the face of the opposite man. Squinting at him she asked, "Do I know you? You look really familiar…"

Neji seemed equally as shocked as she did. He tilted his head to the side and looked her up and down. Letting out a small smile, "Well this was unexpected. It's been a long time, hasn't it, Tenten?"

"This is an interesting coincidence," She didn't even bother hiding her surprise. "So what have you been up to this past year, Neji?" She bent over to pick up her purchase, which had fallen, and looked at her watch again. "It's 7:30, so how'd you like to come to my place for some tea? Or are you busy?"

Shrugging he replied, "I'm free. It seems like we have much to catch up on."

"Yeah we do. My car is just over here." Hitting a button on her keys, her Cobalt made a quiet honk and a 'click' indicating that doors had unlocked. She walked over to the drivers seat while he opened the passenger's door. When she noticed him observing her car she grinned, "Cute, isn't it? It was a graduation gift from the 'rents."

"I've always seen you as more of a Toyota person."

Laughing, she started the ignition. "Yeah well. We've really only been friends for so long." The rest of the ride to her small townhouse was just some small talk. When they reached her home, and she opened the door, the only thing that could be heard was some screaming.

A small boy ran to the door and locked his arms around Tenten's legs. A teenaged girl with red hair soon followed him. Taking some cash out of her wallet, Tenten handed the bills to the girl. "Thanks again, Myuko-chan. He must have been a lot of trouble."

"Not at all." Then she turned her curious blue eyes on Neji, even though she still talked to the other woman. "I've never seen him before, is he your boyfriend?"

Tenten laughed. "No, no. This is Neji, he's an old friend I ran into." The girl didn't look convinced, but didn't ask any more questions. She said a quick good-bye and headed out the door. Then the brunette turned to the little boy. "Haterou-chan, I've got a present for you." She handed him the train set she just bought. "I have a friend over right now, so will you be a good boy and play quietly in the living room?" When he nodded, she have him a kiss on his forehead and smiled as she watched him go. Then turning to Neji she said, "The house is a bit of a mess, but the kitchen's this way. Would you like coffee or tea?"

"Tea will be fine thanks." He took his jacket off and hung it on the same one Tenten put hers on. He looked around, trying to spot the 'mess' she had mentioned. But his home was much more hazardous then hers. "Who was that boy? A nephew?"

She took her time answering. "Not a nephew, I don't have any siblings." Then it was silent for a moment as she turned on the kettle. She took out tea two tea bags and placed them in two mugs she got out of the cupboard. Then she went to her kitchen table and sat across from Neji. With out looking at him she said, "He's my son."

"Son?" Neji asked, surprised. He looked at her, but she was still avoiding his gaze. "Since when did you have a son?" He watched as she fidgeted with her hands, wondering how to answer. Then he rephrased his question, hoping to make it easier on her. "How old is he?"

She was silent for a little while longer, then sighing she replied. "Just turned five. I had him when I was seventeen, the year before college started." Then she smiled sheepishly, "You might be wondering why I didn't tell you about him, but believe me; keeping my own child a secret isn't easy. Do you remember how we first became friends?"

"Ah." Neji said quietly, feeling a small smile creep across his face. "That's not something one would easily forget."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

_Tenten groaned when she woke up, her head felt like someone was hammering it. She lay with her eyes closed for a while, trying to recall the night before. _

_She had gone to a bar with Ino and some other friends with for no reason in particular, just a girls' night out. At the pub, they met up with some other friends, mostly guys they went to school with. She remembered talking a lot, and maybe drinking quite a bit too. _

_She groaned, again, that might explain her pounding headache. But it didn't tell her where she was now. But, still not wanting to really wake up, she rolled over and she felt her arm brush against somebody. _

_Swearing quietly, Tenten suddenly remembered where she was. Looking around to confirm her suspicions, it was a dorm room. She sat up and realised she had no clothes on, and quickly looked to the boy she had the one night stand with. _

_Inuzuka Kiba snored quietly obviously still asleep, which Tenten was very thankful for. This wasn't exactly on her to-do list, as Kiba was a friend of hers. Quietly, she slipped out of the bed and gathered her clothes on the ground. She had her panties on and quickly slid her jeans over them. Then she looked for her shirt and bra, which she found beside a small white dog that was watching her curiously with dark eyes. _

_"Good puppy," She said quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. "Be quiet please." She begged. _

_Thinking that she wanted to play, Akamaru barked and Kiba groaned and rolled over in the bed. Wanting to avoid the awkward 'morning after' she quickly grabbed a tee shirt randomly from the ground and ran to the bathroom locking the door behind her. _

_Breathing heavily and putting her ear to the door, she sighed in relief when all was silent on the other side. But Tenten frowned when she heard something behind her. She turned around and squealed, quickly pulling the tee shirt on and wrapping her arms around herself once more. _

_She glared at Neji, who was currently choking on his toothpaste, and felt a blush spread across her face. He was wearing only a pair of jeans, and his long hair was wet as if he had just gotten out of the shower. Finally spitting the foam out of his mouth, his looked at her incredulously. "What on earth are you _doing_?" _

_Tenten and Neji had gone to the same school since elementary. But he was never in her class, not even in high school, because he was in the enriched programme. Now that she thought of it, even though she had known him most of her life she'd never really exchanged words with him. The only thing she knew was that he was Hinata's cousin. Blushing madly she said, "Why on earth don't you lock the door?" _

_"Because that's not my door. The bathroom conjoins the two rooms, how would I know Kiba didn't have his locked?" She blushed more when he rested his pale eyes on her face. He sighed. "Stay here, I'll get your things for you."_

_He pushed past her and walked into the room, leaving Tenten gaping. She hadn't expected the Hyuuga prodigy to be so nice. And she really didn't expect the Hyuuga prodigy to be so hot. Sure he was nice-looking, even though she'd only seen glimpses of him before, but he had one sexy body. Feeling her face heat up even more, she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. _

_Within a minute he came back in, handing her shirt and bra over to her. She was pretty sure she was about the colour of a tomato by now, "Thanks," She muttered. _

_He smirked. "I'll let you get changed." Then he pointed to the door across the one he had just come in. "Knock on that door when you're done. I'll show you how to get out of the building without getting noticed, since you really shouldn't be in here. Anyways, I'll make up something to tell Kiba when he wakes up." Tenten nodded and he left. _

_She quickly pulled on her clothes and knocked on the door as he instructed. When he opened it, she saw that he had thrown on a tee shirt. He nodded and walked to the other door that led into the hall, motioning for her to follow. _

_"Why are you being so nice?" Tenten blurted out, he looked at her without any interest. And she felt her face heat up even more. "I mean…I always thought you were this cold person…or something." _

_"And have you ever gotten to know me?" She shook her head and he continued walking. "This way." She followed him out and then after taking several turned and going down several flights of stairs, she was outside. "I suppose you know where to go from here?" _

_She nodded and when he turned to leave she said, "Neji-kun, wait!" He turned around and appeared to be agitated. "I really would like to get to know you." _

_He smiled slightly. "I'll see you around, Tenten." _

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Yeah, we were great friends after that. But I really would have liked to have seen Kiba's face when he woke up." She stood up when she heard the kettle whistle.

Neji leaned back in his chair. "So what does that have to do with you not telling me you were a mother? I do believe that was two years ago, so I doubt Kiba's the father." He raised and eyebrow as he watched he pour the boiling water into the cups. "Or was he?"

Tenten laughed. "Kiba? As if. I was drunk that night, remember?" she brought the mugs over and placed on in front of Neji who thanked her. She blew on her own. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to think I was some cheap whore." She smiled, "Our first meeting wasn't one that would exactly convince you otherwise."

"I see." Neji said, taking a sip of the tea. "So who's the father?"

"Not something I would tell you yet." Her smile faded. "But he moved away and didn't go to our college, so he actually doesn't know he has a kid." She sighed and put her cup down. "But that's enough about me, what about you? I heard from Hinata that you had taken over the company. Impressive."

He shrugged. "Not really. But I heard from Lee that you were studying in archaeology."

"So you're still in touch with Lee? He kind of scares me, he's too much like that police officer…Gai I think his name was," She paused. "So who else are you in tune with?"

Neji thought for a moment. "All of the old gang really. So really the only person I haven't seen this past year is you." After a moment he said, "And those three siblings, Gaara and them, I haven't talked to them for a long time. You?"

"Same here basically. Odd though, we seem to see everyone, and they seem to hang out with each other a lot. So it's only you and me that have cut off connection. I wonder why."

It was silent for a moment, and then Neji stood up. "I should go now. Thanks for the tea, it was nice talking to you again."

"Oh, yeah…" Tenten said, standing up as well. "Do you need a ride?"

Neji almost laughed. "Believe it or not I don't live too far from here."

"Wow. It's so weird that we haven't seen each other." She walked him to the door. He slid his jacket on and turned to her.

Smiling slightly, he repeated the words he had said the first time he had met her. "I'll see you around, Tenten"

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry, I just had to use Kiba. None of the other characters would really fit the part...  
I'm thinking Neji is a little OOC, is he?  
Well thanks for reading, Reviews are appreciated :D  
**fanny-kun**


	3. A Dose of Tears

**A/N:** A lot of people asked who the father is..  
Let's say he's going to come in...three chapters from now? Maybe four.  
Just wait and see (:  
Thanks to all my reviewers!  
Enjoy chapter four.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto and I am making no profit off this fanfiction. So sue.

* * *

Tenten opened the blinds and stood in front of the windows for a moment as the morning sunlight flooded into the room. Smiling, she turned to the bed where her son was sleeping and walked over, carefully stepping over hazardously placed toys. She kneeled down beside the bed and stroked his hair. "Haterou, it's time to wake up. What do you want to do today?" 

"Mmm," the five-year-old boy rubbed his eyes. "Okaa-san, is today Saturday?"

"Yes sweetie. So there's no school for you today."

Haterou smiled. "Okaa-san, can I go to Granny's today?"

"Of course. Obaa-san would love to have you." She smiled and stood up. "Get dressed, I have breakfast ready for you downstairs." Then ruffling his hair one last time and walked out. When she was in the hallway, she closed the door quietly and held back the tears that threatened to fall.

When she got back to the kitchen, she placed bacon, eggs, and fruit on a smiley-faced plate and set it on the table beside a glass of milk. As she'd already eaten, she took an envelope from the mail pile on the counter and without reading the outside, opened it.

It was from the hospital.

Frowning, she opened the papers and read over everything, twice to be sure. When she finished she put them down and placed her head in her arms. Then she sobbed quietly.

"Okaa-san, are you crying?" Tenten looked up to see Haterou looking up at her with big brown chocolaty eyes, the same ones as hers. In fact, her son looked remarkably like her, though his brown hair was several shades lighter.

Giving a sad smile she said, "No sweetie, I got something in my eye. Go and eat your breakfast." Haterou smiled and ran off to the table.

As soon as he finished eating he ran off and put on his jacket. After pulling on his boots he smiled and yelled, "Okaa-san, I'm ready!"

"So you are," Tenten forced a smile. She grabbed her own jacket and opened the door. "Come on then, let's take you to Granny's."

Haterou yelped in joy and ran to the car. As soon as Tenten unlocked the doors he jumped in the back and strapped himself into the car seat. After checking the belts over, she climbed in the drivers seat and drove to her mother's house. She listened to her son talk and said things at the right time. After about five minutes they reached their destination and Tenten's mom waved good-bye to her as the old woman held onto Haterou's hand.

Tenten's smile disappeared as soon as she was out of sight of the house. Her mind kept drifting to the letter from the hospital and she knew that she needed to swallow her pride and ask for help. Soon, she pulled up in Hinata's driveway and picked up the letter from the passenger's seat as she knocked on the door.

"Tenten!" The Hyuuga girl's surprised smile faded away as soon as she saw the look on the brunette's face. "What's wrong, you've b-been crying."

Unable to keep her composure any longer, Tenten fell into her friend's arms, weeping uncontrollably. Without a word, Hinata led her into the house and seated them on the couch. Still not being able to control her voice she handed Hinata the letter.

"Oh, that's horrible." She murmured as she read over the letter.

"Hinata-chan," Tenten said, finally getting a hold of her voice. "I don't know what to do. I can't bear to lose him. But I can't afford the surgery." She paused for a moment, wiping her tears away. "Which is why I'm asking you, as a friend. _Please_ Hinata-chan; if you lend me the money, I swear I'll pay you back. _Please_," She sobbed again. "If he dies, I don't know how I'll get through it."

Before Hinata could answer, the doorbell rang. Carefully pulling the other girl off her, she opened the door to see her cousin. "Oh Neji-nii. I'm s-sorry, but this isn't the best time. Uhm, w-what are you doing here anyways?"

"I tried calling, but your line was busy and you didn't answer your cellular. Do you know where Hiashi-sama is? I haven't been able to get a hold of him." then he paused, "Is someone crying?"

"Uhm," Hesitating, she handed the hospital letter to her cousin. "She's really d-distressed."

Neji read over the letter and handed it back. "Tell her I'm sorry and that if there's anything I can do, then she can give me a call. I'll see you later Hinata." With that, he walked back out of the door.

Going back to the living room, she saw Tenten staring at her with swollen eyes. "I don't know why it has to be him. My Haterou," She sobbed again when Hinata sat down next to her. "My Haterou doesn't deserve this. I know that his father doesn't have a history of cancer, but my father has. But he's diagnosed with leukemia at such a young age; he has his whole life still to live. He's my only child, Hinata it's not fair."

"Sssh, I k-know it's not, Tenten." She stroked the older girl's hair, which wasn't in its usual two buns. "I'll pay for the operation, it's n-not a problem."

"Thank you Hinata." She said sobbing. "Thank you so much. I'll pay you back, I promise, I'll be in your debt for the rest of my life."

"Sssh," Hinata said again. "D-don't worry about that now. How about we get your mind off of this and go to that café with Ino-chan and Sakura?" Then she paused. "I'm sorry Tenten, but h-how much longer d-does he have?"

Tenten sat up and rubbed her eyes. "The doctor said only a couple months, unless he gets the operation." She sniffled one last time. "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm ready to go out. Tell Ino and Sakura I'm sorry and I'll see them later. But I thought you had plans today?"

Hinata blushed. "N-nothing of the s-sort. A-are you sure you'll be able to g-get home."

"I'm not going home, I'm going to pick up Haterou and spend as much time as I can with him over the next few months." She smiled. "Thanks so much for all your help, Hinata-chan. I'm sorry for my behaviour."

"N-not at all." With a last wave good-bye, she stepped back into her car and drove out of the driveway.

When she reached her mother's house she showed the old woman the letter and held her as she wept. Then after a cup of tea, she took her son by the hand and drove off.

"What do you want to do today, Haterou-chan?" She said, looking at him through the rear view mirror.

"I want to go to the parade in the park!" He answered happily, swinging his legs.

Tenten forced a smile. "Okay. But first we have to stop by the hospital, okay?" she saw the sad look on his face. "I promise when we go to the parade, I'll buy you lots of gifts."

His face lit up slightly. "Okay Okaa-san. But do I have to stay in the hospital again? I don't like it."

"No you won't have to stay. I just have to sign some papers." Soon she pulled up in front of a large white building. She unbuckled her son from the car seat and held his hand as they walked through the doors.

There was a line of people at the counter and she stood at the back. Before she even moved up a little bit, she saw someone walk out. She smiled and called out. "Ohayou Neji, we seem to meet again."

He stopped and walked over. "Good morning, I seem to see you everywhere lately." Then he kneeled down so he was eye level with her son. "Hello."

Haterou hid behind his mother's legs and tugged onto her jacket. "Okaa-san, he's scary."

Tenten laughed at the look on Neji's face as he stood up straight again. "Yes sweetie, I know he is. But it's okay." Then she spoke with Neji, "What are you here for? This is the long-term section of the hospital."

"I was visiting Lee. He fractured part of his spine somehow, they're still trying to see if they can fix it or not." He looked at her son for a second. "How is he doing?" He motioned to Haterou.

"So it was you who came by Hinata's earlier, eh?" Tenten sighed and ran a hand through her hair. But she didn't answer his question.

"Next." A matron said from the counter. Tenten tugged on her son's arm and directed him towards the desk. After a short conversation she discovered that her son was to stay over night. "You see, the doctors need to do examinations to see how long there is before the surgery needs to take place. I'm sorry, but he'll need to stay." The woman explained.

Tenten sighed again. "I understand. Shall I take him to his room?"

"Please. The doctor will be there shortly."

She turned to Neji, "Do you wanna tag along?" He shrugged. And she turned to her son. "Come on Haterou-chan, let's go." He followed obediently until he saw the door to his hospital room.

"But okaa-san! You said you would take me to the parade and buy me gifts! You said I wouldn't have to stay here tonight." He started crying. "I don't wanna stay here again okaa-san, I don't wanna."

Tenten could feel herself almost crying again. She kneeled down and wiped his tears away. "Sssh, Haterou-chan. I'm sorry, I didn't know the doctor was going to do this. But I'll stay with you all day today, and tomorrow, if he lets you out, then we can go to the parade. It's here all week, and if you do miss it, I'll take you to the zoo next week. You like those monkey's don't you?"

Haterou didn't listen; he pushed himself out of her arms and ran into his room, slamming the door. From the other side he yelled, "No! I don't want you to stay. Go away." Tenten was about to open the door again when Neji stopped her.

"He'll just get angrier if you try to open the door." He said, he face expressionless.

"I believe the young man is right." A blonde woman walked towards them holding a clipboard. Her amber eyes shone with sympathy, "Don't worry, I'll make sure he's comfortable."

Tenten smiled at the woman. "Thank you, Doctor Tsunade-sama." Then she turned around to leave and could hear Neji walking behind her. He followed her to the parking lot and when she took out her keys he held out his hand. She looked at him quizzically, "What?"

"I'll drive you home. You're in no condition to operate a vehicle." He stated, his hand still out.

She scowled. "I'm perfectly capable, thank you very much." She moved to put her key in the door to unlock it when he grabbed her around the wrist.

"No, you're not. You're not even at the right car." Tenten blinked at him and looked at the car. It was the same colour as hers but from an overall different company. She gritted her teeth and handed him the keys. "Fine, but take me to the parade. I want to buy something for my son."

Neji took the keys and walked down to where her car was. When they were both in, Tenten said, "Don't you have your own car?"

"I do." He started the ignition, "but I lent it to Hanabi for the week." He sighed as he pulled out of the lot. "I'm going to regret that yet."

Tenten smiled, but stayed silent. As they neared the parade she couldn't help it, she started crying again. At first Neji didn't notice, but her sobs grew louder he noticed and looked at her kindly. Within the next minute he had parked and wrapped one arm around her shoulder, as he had done many times when they were friends. She leaned in and cried.

"I can't take it." She sobbed, "I can't take it anymore. My Haterou is going to die, I can feel it, I don't think they'll be able to find anyone his age willing to give the bone marrow transplant. I can't take it, I just can't. I don't want him to die. I need him. I can't take it anymore."

Neji didn't say anything, if they were in College again, he would have told her that crying didn't help anything. But now he kept his mouth shut remembering what she had told him before they lost touch.

_Crying might not help anything, but it really feels good to let it out. _

* * *

**A/N:** Just a little touch of drama..(:  
Thanks for reading!  
Reviews are realle appreciated:D  
**fanny-kun**


	4. The Time for Games

**A/N:** It was brought to my attention by _CaffineFreePepsi_ that my facts were way off in the last chapter.  
But I don't think they were way off enough to change them. Cause I'm a lazy ass (:  
And my fic really doesn't flow very well. I'll have to fix that.  
But thanks to all my reviewers!  
Enjoy the fouth installation :D

**Disclaimer:** I wouldn't be writing a fanfiction if I owned.

* * *

Yamanaka Ino was a gossip. There was not a single soul in town who did not know that. They know very well to stay away from her when they're having…issues. But Ino has her sources; she has very _many _sources. 

It was due to one of these sources that she discovered one of her best friends, Tenten, was spending a needlessly high amount of time with a certain Hyuuga, and it wasn't Hinata.

Deciding on getting her information out of Neji instead of tormenting a friend, she climbed into her little green Volkswagen Buggy as soon as she heard the news. She stopped in front of the house she knew belonged to Neji, also due to her sources, and was surprisingly surprised when it was not him who opened the door.

"Ino? What are you doing here?" Tenten stood at the door wearing casual clothes consisting if a sweater and a pair of jeans. Her hair was up in two buns, as it was normally, and everything seemed unsuspicious.

Except for the fact that she was in Neji's house.

But when she came to think of it, the car parked in the driveway did look awfully a lot like Tenten's, but Ino, never wanting to be proved wrong, pushed that minor fact to the back of her head and invited herself into the house.

"I could as you the same question Ten, isn't this Neji-kun's place?" She took off her shoes and walked straight down the hall, having absolutely no idea where she was headed.

Tenten raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "Yeah so?"

"_So_, why are you at Neji-kun's when you haven't talked_ at all_ for the past year?" She made herself comfortable on the couch she found in the living room. She crossed her legs and looked expectantly at the other girl for a moment. "Well?"

"He invited me over, that's all." She sat down in the chair across from Ino. "What are you doing here?"

"That's a good question." The girls turned to see Neji himself standing in the doorway. "The fact that you know where I live and I never told you is rather unsettling."

Ino leaned back into the couch and placed her hands behind her head, making herself unnecessarily comfortable. She grinned a knowing grin. "I have friends in high places, Hyuuga. Don't you forget that if you ever make a move on Tenten here."

"Ino!" the brunette stood up. "Is that what you think? Is that the reason you're here?" She threw back her head and laughed. "You've got it all wrong, me and Neji are nothing like that. We're just friends, I swear. Besides, I only re-met him two nights ago."

The blonde quirked her eyebrow. "And how come I didn't hear about this re-meeting?" Then she gasped. "Did you ditch us for _him_ yesterday? How could you!?"

"Calm down," Tenten started, not wanting to make Ino angry. Ino angry wasn't something she needed. "I didn't ditch you for him, I promise. I was…at the hospital." It wasn't exactly a lie. She was at the hospital for a part of the day, but the other girl didn't need to know that she had spent the rest of the day at the parade with Neji.

At first Ino interpreted what she said as Tenten was the one needing medical attention. Then she remembered Haterou's condition. "Oh right. Sorry, Ten. Well I, uh, should get going now." She walked back to the door and slipped her shoes on. She then opened the door, but before she stepped out she turned and grinned at the other two. "You two look really cute together by the way." And before Tenten could go hit her, she ran to her car and drove off.

Tenten sighed and turned to Neji. "Sorry about that, she's kind of…" It wasn't really possible to summarize Ino into words. "Well, I feel really sorry for Shikamaru."

"Why Shikamaru?" She turned to see Neji sit down and flip on the television like nothing happened. Though she could tell by the look on his face that he was still rather disturbed that Ino knew where he lived.

She grinned. "Because she's got her sights set on that lazy bastard. That'll be quite the romance story wouldn't it? I can see it now: town gossip crushes on the troublesome man who has an eye for another bitchy blonde. That'll be the day."

"Another bitchy blonde? Who would that be?" He never took his eyes off the TV.

"Oh you should remember her. The one that always had her hair in four ponytails. She had two brothers, Gaara and…Kankorou…" Her voice trailed off slightly as she saw what he was watching. "What is that? It's barbaric."

"A movie. It's not barbaric, just gory."

She sat down next to him and was surprisingly unable to keep her eyes off the guts flying everywhere. When the doorbell rang she was more then happy to get off the couch and flung open the front door.

That is, until she saw who was knocking.

It seemed as if their whole group of school friends were there. At the head of the crowd, of course, was Ino who was looking quite proud of herself. "Hey again Ten, I invited some people over."

"How? You just left like, five minutes ago…"

"We're in the 21st century girl, there's ways of fast communication."

"But there's a lot of people, how did they all get…" She shook her head. "You know what, never mind. Let me call Neji."

Before she could he was at the door as well. His pale eyes scanned the people. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba and of course Ino.

Hinata smiled slightly at her cousin. "H-hello Neji-nii. I'm sorry, Ino-chan g-gave us no choice." Before anything else could be said Naruto yelled something that no one could make out and ran into the house. Needless to say, Neji was beginning to feel agitated.

"And why are all of you at my house?" He debated on whether to shut the door in their faces or not, but then that wouldn't really work since the hyperactive blonde was already inside.

"Don't be so glum Neji-kun. We haven't gotten together like this since school." Ino pushed past him and walked into the house, the rest of the group following her.

Neji sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Tenten was the only one who heard him when he said "There was a reason for that," And she gave a sympathetic smile before joining the others who had made themselves comfortable in his kitchen. Kiba was rummaging through the fridge.

As she sat down beside Hinata, the shy girl whispered into her ear. "W-why aren't you at the hospital?"

Tenten sighed. "Because whenever I go he throws things at me and tells me to go away. The doctor said it would be best if I left." Hinata didn't say anything else.

"Man, you have no good food." He closed the door and grinned, showing his pointed canines. "But I have some booze in my car for later."

"It's almost seven o'clock. Why are you guys here?" Tenten said from her seat next to Hinata. "I mean, I haven't seen half of you for weeks."

Naruto grinned. "Exactly. That's why we're here. For a nice little get together." From his pocket he pulled out a deck of cards. "Time for strip poker." All the guys, even Neji smirked and the girls looked at him incredulously.

"We're not kids anymore Naruto," Sakura said in her scolding tone. "I'm not playing."

The blonde boy didn't relent. "Come on Sakura-chan. Sasuke-teme's playing, wouldn't you like to see him in boxers?"

Sakura's emerald eyes gleamed and she let out a catlike grin. "Let's play."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Within the hour the game had gotten quite intense.

Naruto had taken off his sweater and his tee shirt, leaving him shirtless in his jeans. Neji had lost his sweater; his long sleeved shirt, his tee shirt on top of that and a sock. Kiba lost his tee shirt. Sasuke lost only a sweater and Shikamaru was still fully clothed.

The girls weren't fairing as well. Tenten had lost her sweater and three of the shirts she had layered as well as both socks. Ino was sitting proudly in her bra, panties, and skirt having lost all else. Sakura lost her dress and was sitting in a tank top and leggings. And surprisingly Hinata had only taken off a sweater.

"When can we stop playing?" Tenten asked, her face tinted red at what she had on left. "I'm cold."

"It's not our fault you're really bad at this." She glared at Neji who was looking at his cards smugly.

Naruto grinned again. "We're not stopping until someone gets naked."

"Ugh, this is so _wrong_. You guys are just as perverted as you were in school. And here I was thinking at least one of you'd matured." Tenten wrapped her arms around herself, trying to get rid of her goose bumps. "How about we stop now?"

"Come one Tens, you're ruining the fun." Ino sat straight, trying to show off her flat stomach. "Besides, Sasuke-kun, Hinata-chan and Shikamaru have barely lost anything. No one here has reason to be ashamed, we're all friends." Then she leaned over whispering in her ear so only she could here. "Besides, aren't the guys _hot_? Come on, I know you want to see Neji take off his clothes."

Tenten blushed and pushed the other girl away. "You're not very convincing, Ino. Why don't we get dressed and do something else?"

"I'm cool with that. Besides, I think I've seen enough of what I want." Kiba grinned nodding to the girls. "How about truth or dare?"

A groan went across the girls. Tenten sighed. "What is it with you guys and these games that kids in high school play?"

They shrugged and Sasuke spoke. "Then we'll go for spin the bottle."

She was about to object again when a hand went over her mouth. She looked over at Sakura who whispered in her ear. "Come off it, Ten. Don't you want to see two guys tonguing it?"

And image came into her mind of Naruto and Sasuke on top of each other. She grinned. "Spin the bottle it is."

There was a whooping sound and everyone sat in a circle after putting his or her clothes back on. From the fridge, Kiba grabbed a lone bottle of beer and took a swig of it. Passing it around, everyone took a sip, even Hinata, and by the time it went back to Kiba it was nearly empty. He downed the rest and placed the bottle in the middle. He ginned his canine grin and said, "So, who's first?"

When one said anything Naruto nudged Neji.

Sighing, the longhaired boy reached forward and spun the empty bottle with surprising force. It didn't slow for a while and when it did all eyes were on it...

* * *

**A/N:** Blame this chapter on my teenaged romance-ness. (:  
And I actually don't know how to play poker, so I dunno if you can play with that many people or not. Let's pretend you can :D  
So what about the bottle?  
Should it land on Tenten? Or a guy?  
Hm, I think the rating might need to be changed...;)  
Thanks for reading! Reviews are loved.  
**fanny-kun**


	5. Feeling of Jealousy

**A/N:** Ah, this is sort of s short chapter...sorry 'bout that (:  
I'm starting to run out of ideas, so I apologise if I don't update very frequently..  
Well I would like to say thanks to all my reviewers!  
And enjoy chapter five :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. But I do own the plot of this fic. Yay me (:

* * *

_Round and round the bottle goes…_

_Where it stops, nobody knows… _

Emerald eyes looked at the empty beer bottle, as if willing it to move another person over, but it didn't move from its position with the nozzle pointed at Sakura. It was silent for a while and it seemed as if every single person was waiting it to continue its spinning rounds. It was Tenten who broke the silence.

"Well, go for it, Neji," Her voice was so quiet that barely anybody heard. "You know what comes next in the game."

A chuckle came from Kiba who was sitting next to her. She looked over a met his eyes as he cracked a grin. "This is going to be good, Uchiha's gonna freak." His voice was just loud enough for her to hear.

But for some reason she didn't feel excited to see the look on Sasuke's face, as she would normally have been. A pang went though her as she watched Neji sigh and stand up to walk over to the pink-haired girl.

"Ten seconds, Hyuuga." Ino yelled louder then necessary through her laughter, "It has to last at least ten seconds. I want to see some tongue action if possible." She stopped laughing for a moment to wink.

"Awwhh, I wanted to kiss Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice was the only sound as Neji kneeled down and grabbed the nervous girl's chin.

Tenten wanted to look somewhere else as their lips collided. But she couldn't will her eyes away from observing how their mouths moved in sync, how Neji's hand moved along her jaw line, how Sakura's eyes fluttered closed. She couldn't help but notice that when the ten seconds were up, their hands lingered on each other's faces even after they pulled away and their eyes stayed on contact.

She couldn't help but wonder why her heart hurt.

When Neji was sat back down, three conversations started at once. Unfortunately for Tenten, as she wasn't a part of any of them, she had no choice of listening what the others around her were saying or not.

"Ohmigod I just can't get over this. Is he a good kisser?" Tenten tuned out before the blushing Sakura could answer.

The next conversation centred around Neji himself.

"You lucky dog! So how was it?" She tuned out of that one too. The only other conversation going on was between two people. The look on Sasuke's face indicated that he was already annoyed enough as it was without Kiba bothering him.

The black-haired boy let out a sidelong glare at the Inuzuka, making him shut up immediately. "I already told you once. I don't care."

Since that seemed to be the end of that conversation, Tenten isolated herself to the safety of her own thoughts. Everyone acted like they were high school kids again, gossiping about who's going out with who and who's jealous.

She sighed to herself angrily. It was just one kiss; one kiss in the game of 'spin the bottle' nonetheless. No one, herself included, should be getting so worked up about it. As if Ino had read her mind, the blonde spoke up. "Okay then, enough of that. We're going clockwise, so Sasuke-kun, you're next."

"This is getting troublesome. It should be a girl who goes now, since Neji just did." Shikamaru sat up from his position lying on the floor, apparently because he had been trying to avoid all the 'troublesome' conversations and yawned as he stretched. "Let's go with Tenten."

Him saying her name caught her off guard. She looked over and glared at him, noticing that his eyes were flicking between Neji, Sakura and herself. She looked over at Ino beside her and saw that she was giving her a look that said 'spin-it-but-if-it-lands-on-Shikamaru-then-I'll-kill-you' sighing, the brunette reached for the bottle and spun it harder then she meant to. It swirled around in a blurry circle.

_Damn that Shikamaru_ she found herself thinking as she watched the empty beer bottle, _He knows these things better then a girl._ She was so busy cursing people that she failed to notice the bottle stopped.

When a loud 'ohhhhhh' filled the large living room she looked up and saw the nozzle was pointed at none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

She looked up at him, her chocolate eyes mirroring the same look that said 'how-ironic' as his black orbs. Sighing, she stood up and walked across the circle to him, she could feel all eyes on her. When she sat on her knees in front of him, it took all her will power not to look at Neji who was sitting beside him.

Sighing again, Tenten leaned forwards and touched her lips to Sasuke's, expecting him to sit there like the ice sculpture he was. What she didn't expect was for him to wrap an arm around her waist to pull her in and kiss her hard. She let out a small squeak of surprise before realisation donned on her.

Despite what he said about not caring, Sasuke was trying to make Sakura jealous.

Convincing herself that that feeling in her stomach wasn't because she wanted to make Neji jealous, but because she wanted to help Sasuke out, she wrapped one of her arms around his neck and the other she placed softly on his cheek. She neither knew nor cared whether it's been ten seconds or not.

She felt Sasuke smirk against her face. He leaned back so his back was flat on the ground and so that she was on top of him. He licked her bottom lip as his hands made their way to her hips where he rested them lazily. Tenten opened her mouth slightly and felt his tongue slip into her mouth and begin to explore every nook and cranny it. She slipped the tip of her own tongue along the bottom of his; tasting the remnants of the extra strong peppermint gum he had been chewing earlier.

Tenten had to admit that he was an excellent kisser, but she didn't like peppermint. She much preferred spearmint.

Before they could get any further, she felt a pair of strong arms pulling her off. Finally looking up, she saw Neji looming over her, his hand still on her shoulder. "It's been longer then ten seconds."

No one said anything. Tenten looked around the circle to see people's faces. Most of them were shocked, except for Sakura, who wore an expression of annoyance and looked away as soon as soon as their eyes met. She looked at Sasuke, who was propped up on his elbows, his ebony eyes never wavering from Sakura.

Finally, she looked at Neji. He was looking across the room seemingly interesting in a tiny spider that was making its way up the wall. She suddenly wished she were a spider. If she was then she could just eat everyone and not have to worry about making up an explanation. Then she almost laughed out loud and pushed the thought out of her mind.

Slowly, she stood up and smiled. "Yeah, sorry about that." Then she walked back to her spot in the circle between Kiba and Ino and promptly sat down. "So, what's next?"

"Let's go swimming." Ino's statement was completely out of line and everyone looked at her like she was insane. But strong a girl she was, she didn't give way to those looks. "I mean, it's perfect for a time like this, right?"

"Perfect? Are you crazy? It's almost winter; we'll all get hypothermia, and I have class tomorrow, I can't get sick." Even though she was trying to hide it, Sakura's voice made it completely obvious that she was still angry.

Ino looked at her wearily. "I meant an indoor pool, baka. And don't complain to us that you have class, it was your choice to go to med school."

The pinkette huffed and looked away. Tenten sighed tapped her fingers against the hardwood floor, her nails making clicking sounds. "Ino, it's almost eight and it's a Sunday. Good luck finding a public pool at this time."

"Public pool!" Ino looked disgusted, "Public pools are the definition of disgusting, I wouldn't go in one if you paid me. What I'm saying is that Shikamaru has an indoor pool."

Everyone looked at her more oddly than even before.

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at her. "How do you know I have an indoor pool? That's troublesome, and kind of creepy." He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Besides, it's not mine. It's my cousin's; she'll shoot me if we use it. She's almost as troublesome as my mom."

"I'm not in the mood for swimming." Tenten decided finally. Sighing again she stood up and stretched. "I'm headed to the hospital before visiting hours are over. I hope he doesn't throw things at me again."

No one said anything to that. But Neji found himself wondering whether or not he was the only person who didn't know that she had a five-year-old son and for some reason it agitated him. Then he started wondering who the father was. He knew she wasn't some whore, and after what just happened he started wondering whether it was Uchiha Sasuke or not.

Then finally Neji started to wonder why he cared. It's not like he thought of her like that, right?

_Damn it_. He though. _These stupid hormones, why won't they go away? _

As Tenten walked over to the closet a cell phone started ringing. Several people flipped theirs open and closed it again when they saw that the call wasn't for them. Tenten dug hers out of her pocket and said, "Mine."

She clicked the green talk button and put the mobile to her ear. "Hello?"

All the other people could hear was the low buzzing of the male voice on the other line. Tenten herself was shocked and she hardly believed who she was talking to. Quickly, she caught on to the conversation and gave a time and date to the person she was speaking to. After a quick goodbye she snapped her phone shut and just stared at it.

"Who was that?" It seemed like four or five people asked her at once.

Tenten looked over at her friends and forced a smile. "Sorry, but I have to go now. Don't worry, it wasn't anyone you need to worry yourselves about…" She quickly grabbed her coat and walked out the front door. As she got into her car she finished her sentence. "…yet"

* * *

**A/N:** My first kissing scene (:  
And it was probably crap..I'm not good with these romance-y things..  
Oh well...  
Thanks for reading! Reviewers get a cookie :D  
**fanny-kun**


	6. Nighttime Visitings

**A/N:** Ah, not as many reviews as I'd hoped for the last chapter..  
Oh well (:  
This chapter is kind of bad in my opinion, I was trying out a different style of writing.  
And that didn't really work out, I don't even think you can tell the difference..  
Also I changed the summary because the plot changed in my head, just in case people were wondering..  
Well Thanks to my reviewers :D  
Enjoy chapter six!!

**Disclaimer:** I would not be writing a Naruto fanfiction if I owned.

* * *

Tenten handed the young girl the money and took her cappuccino to the corner of the coffee shop. When she got to the table she took the laptop from her bag and settled in. She went on her work website and attempted to begin her report on the artefacts she had been researching. 

It was too bad for her that her mind was far from work.

After she couldn't find any inspiration, she started to play solitaire for no specific reason. She was so out of it that she barely acknowledged the person that had taken the seat across from her.

She nodded at him. "Hi Sasuke."

"Hn." Was all she got for the reply. He took a sip of his own coffee and said no more. Tenten took the time to finish her came before she closed her computer and put her elbows on top if it and semi-glared at him.

He didn't react at all to her stare. Instead he merely occupied himself by looking out the window until she got agitated. "What do you want?" her voice gave away her annoyance.

"Sorry. About earlier." Earlier meant about an hour ago. But Tenten was shocked enough to hear Sasuke apologizing. _The_ Uchiha Sasuke, child prodigy and brother to the hunky Uchiha Itachi was apologizing to her.

Tenten almost scoffed. He was wasting an apology that he obviously rarely gave out to someone who really couldn't care less. She took a sip of her coffee. "You're forgiven. Now go away, I have work to do." She opened her laptop again and started a new game of solitaire.

"What work? You're playing cards." Tenten scowled. Life really didn't like her right now. She turned to glare at Hyuuga Neji who had apparently appeared out of thin air at a very inconvenient time. He too took a sip from his cup and she found herself wondering whether everyone she knew came for a coffee at nine pm.

"I'm working hard at winning this game, thank you very much." She tore her gaze away from his annoyed expression and resumed her game; trying very hard to pretend the two handsome young men near her were merely rocks.

Then she nearly gaped at her thoughts. Did she just _think_ of Sasuke and Neji as handsome?

No. No she did not. She only thought of them as handsome rocks. After all, rocks are allowed to be handsome, right? Yes, that's right.

And like all normal love squares must go another significant other just happened to pop up at that perfect time. That's right, folks; it was Haruno Sakura's turn for the spotlight.

Tenten scowled again and gave up her game and put her laptop away. She was beginning to wish that she had never re-met Neji. She had liked her life before him, but now he had to walk in and make her life seem like a cheesy romance story.

Man, could this day get any worse?

The answer, like it always is, is yes.

The reason?

Because Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Neji and Tenten were all in the same room within arms length.

Not the best combination after what happened earlier. Maybe playing a game of spin the bottle wasn't as great as an idea as it was at the time. Who knew what ideas young people just a couple years older than teenagers could get into their heads?

And the idea?

Tenten's idea was that Neji liked Sakura who liked Sasuke who apparently liked her who liked Neji.

No, she didn't just think that. She _does not_ like Neji. No, no, no, no. No like. No.

"Ugh." Tenten's head began to hurt. Why did they suddenly turn from twenty-two to fifteen? The way they were looking at each other pretty much said 'I hate you because the person who I like likes you.'

How high school was that?

Very.

"Listen." She said, taking a deep breath. "Let's handle this like the adults we are, okay? Because we're all acting like a bunch of hormone indulged children." Then she completely lost her train of thought and suddenly looked at Neji in bewilderment. "How did you get everyone out of the house so quickly? You're not stupid enough to let Ino take over the place while you came out here are you?"

He looked at her wearily. "I trust Hinata." That was all he had to say.

"Hm, maybe we should talk about this separately, eh?" Tenten stood up and picked up her bag. "Sakura, Sasuke you two stay here. Kiss and make-up or something like that, get it through your head that I'm not interested in that bastard with a dead chicken on his head." She turned to Sasuke and smiled somewhat sweetly. "Don't take that personally, Sasuke."

Then she turned and walked away and grabbed Neji's arm in the process. "You are coming with me. We're going for a walk, kay?"

She felt him shrug and follow along with her pull. As soon as they were outside and had walked a little ways down the silent street she turned on him.

"Now, I would very much like you to tell me what your problem is? You start acting all pissy over a game."

Neji shrugged and walked past her. "You're sounding pretty 'pissy' yourself. But that was a low blow you made, saying that Sasuke's hair looked like that."

Tenten could practically feel her annoyance bubbling under her skin. "Well then you _really_ don't want me to tell you what I think of your hair. Seriously, these past few days have been so…ugh." With a last cry of frustration she lost all self-control she had remaining and grabbed onto his collar.

The next thing she knew _she_ had pressed _her_ lips to_ his_, hard.

And to her sufficient surprise he kissed her back. She wrapped her free hand around his neck and pulled him closer. After a few seconds they pulled apart and Tenten got off her tiptoes.

She licked her lips and smiled sheepishly up at him. Their kiss wasn't nearly as long or as intimate as the one she had shared with Sasuke but she liked it so much more.

But Tenten _loved_ spearmint, more then peppermint any day.

Neji tasted like spearmint.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"You have no good movies." Neji looked through Tenten's DVD rack while she popped some popcorn. After careful consideration they decided that it would be better for his heart condition if Neji did not go back to his house while Ino, Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru and Hinata were still there.

So as the plan was to have him stay over night, Neji had taken it onto herself to criticize her movie choices. It's not her fault that her son liked Disney, but she did too.

Other than Disney movies, there were sappy romances and outdated martial arts movies with pointy weapons.

Tenten liked pointy weapons, that's part of the reason she's studying archaeology. There were really old pointy weapons.

She walked back, with a bowl of warm buttery popcorn that filled the room with a sweet scent. She made herself comfortable and looked over at Neji. "Don't make fun of my movies. Let's watch a romance. I'm not in the mood for action tonight."

He sighed and obliged, plucking a random pink-covered disc from the cabinet and placed it in the DVD player. After pressing play he went and sat next to her and took a handful of popcorn.

And that's how the rest of the night went.

They'd play a movie, which Tenten would start crying at the end because it was so sad and Neji was faced with an awkward situation. Then they'd go pop more popcorn and play yet another movie, which moved the girl to tears as well.

Before too long both were asleep. Neji rested against the arm of the couch and Tenten's head propped on his shoulder.

And they were both abruptly awakened in the morning by a loud 'clang', which turned out to be the garbage truck. A look to the clock told them that it was 11 o'clock.

"I'm going to the hospital now to pick up Haterou. Do you want to come, or are you still too scared to see what your house looks like?" Tenten walked to the kitchen to throw the popcorn bowl in the sink.

After much thought, which took the time span of about half a second, Neji said, "I'll come. But I'm driving, you're a terrible driver."

"Am not. I just like to relax while I'm in the car."

"Relax as in driving over the yellow lines?"

Tenten had no reply to that. So the two got into to car, Neji in the drivers seat, and drove to the hospital where they met, as in almost collided, with the doctor from the day before.

The brunette girl smiled. "Good morning, Tsunade-sama. How's Haterou?"

"He's good. Fairing really well compared to other cancer patients. You have a strong son, Tenten." Then the blonde woman led the two to the room with the door labelled 'Medashi Haterou.'

Tenten herself didn't have a surname. She had never known her parents, so she grew up taking the last name of the two people who had adopted her and been her parents. But when she turned eighteen she dropped the name 'Medashi' because it didn't feel right to her. It also didn't feel right that her son had to live with no surname so she gave him the one she had grown up with.

When the door opened Haterou had apparently forgotten the fact that he was angry with his mother and launched himself at her, wrapping his small arms around her legs. "Okaa-san! Can I go home now?"

"Of course." She bent down and kissed his forehead. Then she gestured to Neji who was having a conversation with Tsunade about Lee. "That's Neji, he'll be staying with us for the rest of the day because his house is…kind of unliveable right now. Be nice to him, okay?" She tapped his nose.

"But I don't want to share you, okaa-san!" He pouted making Tenten laugh.

She stood up and held his hand. "Don't worry, I'll be yours always." Then she turned to Neji. "Are you ready to go?"

He nodded and said a quick thanks to Tsunade who regarded the two knowingly.

Neji drove them home, and the three of them spent the rest of the day together, rather like a normal family would. Though Tenten thought that if she'd said that to Neji he'd get somewhat angry.

Around seven pm she made the other two some hot chocolate. Haterou wanted his with marshmallows and so did Neji, making her laugh.

As she served and took a sip of her own as well the doorbell rang, making Tenten remember she was supposed to meet someone at this time.

"Damn." She muttered quietly as she stood up to walk to the door. Haterou followed his mother and so did Neji for the sake of it.

The door opened to reveal a tall man about maybe a year older then Tenten and Neji. He had messed up brown hair and a goofy grin on his face. He handed a rose to Tenten and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey girl, it's been a while."

Tenten took the rose he offered with no expression and looked down at Haterou when he tugged on her sweater. "Okaa-san, who's that?" She sighed and made and cautious glance at Neji who was regarding the man somewhat coldly.

"That, Haterou, is your father."

* * *

**A/N:** Oooh he comes in at last.  
Anyone wanna guess who it is? It is a character in the manga by the way.  
I love to hear peoples ideas :D  
Thanks for reading! Reviews are highly appreciated (:  
**fanny-kun**


	7. Just Keep Talking

**A/N:** Wow, a lot of people guessed rightly. (is that even a word?)  
I've been reading a lot of KankTen fics lately, so I guess that's why its him..  
Not that anyone asked :P  
Thanks to all my reviewers!  
Enjoy chapter Six! (it's not as angsty as I'd originally hoped but, eh) :D

**Disclaimer:** I would not be writing a Naruto fanfiction if I owned.

* * *

Kankorou blinked and looked at the woman in front of him quizzically. "Father? I'm not a father." 

"Yes you are." Tenten replied rather coldly. "This is your son." She grasped onto Haterou's shoulder tightly as he examined the young boy. He did look like him, same messy light brown hair and same face shape.

But he still didn't believe it. "I don't have a son. You would have told me if he was ours."

"But he his." The coldness never left her voice. "What kind of person would I be if I told you that you had a son while you were studying abroad? I didn't want you to lose your business opportunities. You're an entrepreneur now, aren't you? I didn't want you to stop from doing what you wanted to. Besides, you were eighteen, so I doubt you could have handled it.

Before Kankorou had a chance to reply Haterou tugged on her sweater again. "Okaa-san, he's not my daddy. I don't have a daddy."

Tenten didn't reply to her son. Instead, she just glared at the man in front of her. "Why did you come back? You haven't even written to me in five years and you just come bombarding into my house without giving me any notice."

"I called you yesterday." He muttered silently.

"A phone call. The only one I've gotten from you since high school. You didn't even tell me why you were back." She said, exasperated. Tenten put a hand on the doorknob so she could slam it shut at a moment's notice. "And don't give be the crap about 'wanting to see me again' because I won't buy it."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "We're back with Gaara, he needs to make a business deal and me any my sis tagged along. I decided to drop by." She locked eyes with her. "Come on, don't be mad. I forgot."

When he made to grab her hand, Tenten flinched away as if he were the plague. "You forgot? Well you haven't changed a bit, you still always say the wrong things." She threw the rose at his feet and began to shut the door.

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" When Kankorou pushed open the door that was just about to close in his face, Neji thought it was the time to step in.

"You should go. She obviously doesn't want to talk to you right now." His voice was even colder than Tenten's as he stepped in the doorway.

Kankorou looked at him as if he was just seeing him for the first time. "Hey, I know you, you went to our high school." Then he looked over his shoulder to Tenten. "What's he doing here?"

It was silent for a moment, then she burst out. "Neji's my boyfriend." It wasn't exactly true, seeing as they'd only met again three days ago, but Kankorou didn't need to know that.

"Boyfriend? What the hell do you mean, 'he's your boyfriend'?" The anger could be clearly heard in his voice.

"Exactly what it sounds like, baka. _Neji. Is. My. Boyfriend_." The anger could be clearly heard in her voice as well. Neji began wondering if it was safe to be standing between the two.

The other man scowled. "You're not allowed to have a boyfriend. I'm your boyfriend."

"What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean? I haven't seen you for five bloody years! I'm sure you've had several girlfriends by now, and don't tell me that you haven't, you've always been a player."

"That's different!"

"How?" Tenten was screaming now, and she had pushed past Neji to yell in his face.

As if as an answer Kankorou pulled her close to him and pressed his lips to hers. Neji sighed and wondered why all this had to happen to him. Before he could wonder any more, he found himself in between the two and glaring at the man. "Leave her alone, and don't you dare force yourself on her. "

Right now, Neji would bet that Tenten was glaring at the man in front of him with a look that says 'what-are-you-gonna-do-now?'

Too bad it wasn't him who chose what to do.

The next moment there was a sharp pain in his cheek and he heard Tenten cry "Neji!"

He moved a hand up and rubbed his jaw where Kankorou had just punched him. He rotated his jaw to make sure it wasn't broken and stood straight again, the hit hadn't knocked him over but it was close.

"I don't want to fight you. Go away now." Almost before he got the words out of his mouth, another punch went flying at him. Expecting this, Neji ducked and punched the other man in the gut.

Kankorou stumbled backwards and reached into his jacket. The next moment he had flipped open his pocket knife and pointed it directly at Neji's neck. "Get away from Tenten. She's_ mine_."

Tenten had finally gotten enough of this. After pushing her son up the stairs and to his room, she went back to the front door and spat in his face. "I'm not an object. I belong to _no one_. Now put the knife down before I call the police for abuse."

"Not until you tell me that you're not interested in this pretty boy." He hissed through clenched teeth. "Get away from Tenten, or I'm going to cut your hair shorter than mine."

Neji looked at him wearily. "That's not a very good threat."

For a moment it actually looked like Kankorou was going to slice him. Then a monotone voice came into the scene. "Kankorou. What are you doing?"

All three of the people turned to see three more people come up the driveway. Tenten recognised Shikamaru right away because of his hair. The other two she recognised as Kankorou's siblings as they came nearer.

"Control your temper, Kankorou." It was the redhead that spoke. Then Gaara flicked his sea foam green eyes to Neji. "Are you Hyuuga Neji?"

Neji sighed. Why _did_ everything have to happen to him? "And what if I am?"

"Hyuuga Hiashi-san sent me to see you about the business deal between Hyuuga Corp. and Sabaku Corp."

"He did, did he? I'm not surprised, Hiashi-sama made me deal with Uchiha Corp last year." He said this under his breath and only Tenten heard him. Then out of his jacket he pulled out a card and handed it to Gaara. "Well, it's getting late. Why don't you come by my office tomorrow afternoon? Here's my card, we can discuss everything there."

"Very well. I'll see you tomorrow."

Gaara turned to leave and with one glare from his younger brother Kankorou left too. But not without sending a last 'this-isn't-over' look to Neji. Temari and Shikamaru also left without a word.

Neji sighed and ran a hand through his long hair, starting to shudder at the thought of it being shorter that short. He turned and walked back into the house. After a moment's hesitation Tenten called after him. "Hey, Neji, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." His voice was colder than he'd meant it to be, but he couldn't help but feel a small pain in his jaw and hoped he had hit the other guy hard enough. He walked to the closet and grabbed his coat. "I should get going now."

"Listen, I'm sorry. Maybe I should have told you sooner, but I didn't think he'd come back so suddenly." When he walked out the door she gaped. "You're not planning on walking to your house, are you? You'll get a cold."

He stopped walking and turned, his pale eyes dancing with apparent amusement. "Then how do you propose I get home?"

Tenten dug into her pocket and pulled out her car keys and tossed them to him. "Take my car. You can pick us up tomorrow at seven thirty. See you then." She turned quickly to hide her smile and softly shut the door. Through the eyehole, she watched him look at the door for about a minute then walked to her car and drove off.

"Okaa-san?" A small tired voice made her tear away from the peephole.

"Yes, sweetie?" Tenten braced herself for Haterou to ask her about his father.

Haterou yawned. "Will you tell me a story?"

The question surprised her and she grinned. "Yes of course." She took his hand and led him to the couch. She sat down first and pulled him onto her lap. "Which one do you want to hear? Wait no, let me guess: the one about ninjas? That's your favourite."

"No. I want to tell that one to Neji-chan tomorrow." Tenten laughed out loud. He wouldn't be too happy to hear a little kid calling him 'Neji-chan' "Can you tell me the one about the train?"

"All right." So Tenten told her story, she was rather good at making up stories. But she wasn't really paying attention to herself talk. In the back of her mind, she was thinking about Neji and what he thought of her now.

When she finished talking she saw that Haterou had fallen asleep. Smiling, she carried him up to his room and tucked him in his bed. The rolled over and mumbled. "Good night, okaa-san. I love you."

"I love you too."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Are you excited for school today, Haterou?" Tenten did up the zipper to his jacket and patted his head. It was almost seven thirty and they were waiting for Neji to arrive.

Haterou smiled. "Mmhm! It's Sachi-chan's turn for show and tell today, he's bringing in his pet lizard!" Tenten grinned at how happy her was.

"Lizard, wow. That's really cool. You'll have to tell me all about it later today, kay?" She walked over the door when it rang. "Morning, Neji."

"Good morning." He went over and ruffled Haterou's hair. "Morning, Haterou."

"Good morning, Neji-chan!" Tenten laughed as his eyebrow twitched. Then the young boy turned to his mother. "Okaa-san, can I get a lizard?"

Tenten's smile faltered a bit. She didn't mind the lizard part; she minded what they would have to _feed_ it. "We'll think about it, okay? Let's get you to school."

They walked to the car, and as Tenten got to the drivers seat Neji stopped her and dangled the keys in front of her face. She rolled her eyes and moved to the passenger's side. After turning around to see that Haterou was buckled in, she put her own seat belt on and told Neji the directions to the school.

They ride there was in a comfortable silence. When they reached the school, both adults waved good-bye to Haterou who happily ran off to join his friends. As soon as they were on the road again, Neji spoke.

"Do you mind if I stop by my cousin's house? I get my car back today."

"Hinata?" Tenten remembered him saying something about his car, but she couldn't quite get the exact words into her head.

Neji sighed. "If only. I lent it to Hanabi, I'll be lucky if it's still in one piece."

Tenten laughed. "The why'd you lend it to her?"

"Because she's still in high school and lives with Hiashi-sama. She'll tell him every little thing I do unless I…pay a price, let's say."

She laughed again. "I see. She sounds…lovely."

He grunted and didn't say anything else. Within a few minutes they had pulled up to a rather, or very, large house. Neji smirked as he saw the girls face. "This is the home of the owner of Hyuuga Corp. Did you think he'd be living in a townhouse?"

"Actually yes." She tilted her head to see if she could see around the large structure. She couldn't. Then she turned to Neji with large eyes. "Please, can I go in? _Please_?"

Neji made the mistake of looking into her chocolate brown eyes. He sighed and got out of the car. Tenten squealed in delight and got out as well. Neji made his way to the door, and without even knocking got the key out of his pocket and pushed it open.

As it opened a teenaged girl walked out in a navy blue school uniform, the glass of milk in her hand made it obvious that she was in the middle of breakfast. Her eyes opened wide. "Neji-nii, hi. Uhm you're here for the car, right?" She grinned sheepishly. "Could I keep it for another week, please? I have a date tonight."

"All the more reason to get it back." He held out his hand expectantly and, though she held up well in the glare contest, Hanabi walked over to the closet and pulled the keys out of her pocket.

Then she turned to Tenten. "Who are you?"

The brunette, who was busy admiring the chandelier hanging above them quickly, held out her hand to the younger Hyuuga. "I'm Tenten, nice to meet you. You must be Hinata's sister."

"Oh, you're friends with Hinata-nee?" Hanabi shook Tenten's outstretched hand. "So, what are you doing with _him _then?" She nodded to Neji. "You're not together, are you? You can do so much better."

Tenten grinned and chanced a look over to Neji who looked as if he was trying his hardest to tune out the conversation. "I'd like my keys, Hanabi."

"Yeah, yeah, calm down." The young girl walked over and handed him his keys. As soon as he began to turn away she grabbed his cheek. "Neji-nii, you have a bruise." Then a wicked gleam crossed her pale eyes. "Nothing happened, right? Otou-san wouldn't be very happy if you'd gotten in a fight."

"Hey, Hanabi." Tenten pulled the young girl away and slung her arm around her shoulder and led her away from Neji. "We should get together sometime, ne?" When they were far enough, Tenten slipped a bill into Hanabi's hand and lower her voice. "Let's never talk about the bruise on his cheek again, kay?"

Hanabi looked at the bill first then back at Tenten with a grin on her face. "You've got yourself a deal." Then she turned back to Neji. "At least let me take the car to school. You can follow me to make sure I don't do anything! I don't feel like walking all that way."

Neji sighed and handed back the keys. "Fine. Tenten and I are following." Then they walked out and opened the garage door.

Tenten couldn't believe her eyes.

Sitting comfortably inside the garage was a sleek and shiny pearl white BMW Coupe. She was jealous. Very jealous.

"Hanabi, give me the keys I'm driving." The younger girl handed them over with a smirk. Neji, not wanting to say anything got into Tenten's blue Chevvy, which wasn't comparable to his car and turned on the ignition.

The two girls got into the car and it was quiet for a moment after Hanabi gave the instructions. But it wasn't quiet for very long. "Soo Tenten. Where did Neji-nii get that bruise?"

The brunette sighed as she turned to corner. "I guess you could say he got it from my ex…"

"Wow. That's intense." She smirked. "So was he a significant ex?"

"Yeah. We kinda had a kid together." Though she was keeping an eye on the road, she couldn't miss the younger girl's eye's pop.

Hanabi gaped for a moment. "So what about my cousin? Do you like him? Love him?"

"You're a nosy brat, you know that?" This got a smug smile. "I think I do. I think I might love him."

* * *

**A/N:** We come nearing the climax..  
dun dun duuun!  
Kanky's going to be in more in the furture :D  
Thanks for reading!  
Tata dahlings, reviewers get cookies!  
**fanny-kun**


	8. Akatsuki Café Voyages

**A/N:** Ah, it's been a while.  
Oh well...  
Anyways..this chapter is nothing important.  
I just started typing and this was the result :D  
Main story line starts again next chappie, don't know when that'll be..  
Thanks for my reviewers! Enjoy chapter 8!

**Disclaimer:** no ownage.

* * *

_One month later_.

"Can I braid your hair?" Tenten asked from her position leaning against Neji's shoulder. They were at his house; he was watching television while she was reading one of his many books. It was the winter holidays so neither of them had work. Haterou was playing at a friend's house, leaving the two alone.

The past month had been smooth going for the most part. They saw each other barely and if they did it was on weekends because of work but the two have developed to be like best friends more than anything. That still didn't stop Neji from getting annoyed every so often like he always did. "No. You may not braid my hair."

"Oh _come on_. It's so long and shiny, it's practically begging to be braided!" She hadn't looked up from her book yet, and he hadn't looked away from the TV screen either.

"My hair does not beg to be braided." Before she could say anything else he added. "It does not beg to be cut, brushed, or dyed either. So don't bother asking."

Tenten, having nothing else to say, merely read the book for the total of five more minutes. Then she snapped it shut and walked over to stuff it back on its shelf. She turned to Neji and crossed her arms. "Let's go out."

This caught his attention away from the screen. "Out?"

"It's almost noon." She pointed to the clock. "Let's go grab some lunch at that Akatsuki café, I've been meaning to drop by there." Then he sighed.

"Fine. I'm hungry anyway."

She let out a smile and grabbed her jacket. "Can I drive?"

No reply until he'd gotten his jacket on. "You can drive your car."

"But I like yours. It runs really smoothly, and it's really quiet. I love your car, can I drive it please?"

"No."

"Please?"

Neji let out a frustrated sigh and tossed her the keys. "Fine. But be careful, I don't want you scratching my car."

She caught them and grinned. "What's with it with guys and their cars?" Under her breath, "Kankorou's like that too."

"What was that last part?" Neji had slipped on his shoes and was at the door when he heard Tenten mutter something he didn't quite hear.

"Nothing. Let's go." She pushed past him out the door and practically ran to his white Coupe. She turned on the ignition and drove off.

It was about a ten-minute drive and was in a comfortable silence. When they reached the café, the size if it was a surprise to both of them. It was more like a large restaurant then the coffee pub it was supposed to be. Neji held the door open for Tenten and when they got inside they saw that it was decorated mainly black with small, red, and swirly clouds.

They walked up to the small podium where there was a sign in and elegant typeface that said 'Please Wait to Be Seated.' Waiting was about half a minute when a smiling girl with bluish black hair with an origami flower in it came to help them.

She looked them over with her dark blue eyes then wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Table for two?" The looked up to see them nod. "Follow me please."

As they followed her, Tenten couldn't help but notice that there was a surprising amount of people, and that most of the people here were in couples or group dates. Only three or four families of two parents and children. The two stopped at a small table near the window. The girl leading them put down the menus and spoke when they were seated. "My name is Konan. You're waiter should arrive shortly; if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Thank you for choosing the Akatsuki Café." With a last smile she was gone.

"This place is…different from how I expected it." Tenten picked up the menu and flipped through it. "It kind of reminds me of a club."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "How does this place remind you of a club? There's puffy red clouds everywhere." He opened his own menu and flipped through it.

"I don't know, I guess the black gives off a sort of vibe." Then she looked around. "Ino said Sasuke's brother is supposed to work here."

"You're talking about Uchiha Sasuke, yeah?" A blonde man with long hair in a ponytail had just arrived next to his table. "His brother, Itachi, works here, yeah. You know him?"

Tenten tapped her chin, thinking of when she'd met Sasuke's older brother. She'd seen him in College, but never talked. "Itachi? No. I don't think we'd ever met him. But Sasuke's a good friend of ours."

The blonde man looked at her and Neji for a moment. "I think I remember you guys, yeah. You went to the Gakure College, yeah? I remember now, you were freshmen in my senior year, yeah."

"Sophomores," Neji corrected. "We were sophomores when you were senior. Uchiha Sasuke was a year below us with everyone else."

"I remember you too." He looked at Neji for a while. "You're that Hyuuga prodigy, yeah." His face suddenly lit up as if he just remembered something. Then from a pocked he pulled out a notepad. "My name's Deidara and I'll be your waiter, yeah. You ready to order yet, yeah?"

Tenten flipped through her menu again, so Neji ordered first. "I'll have a bowl of miso and pork ramen."

"And I'll take the soup and sandwich combo of the day, thanks."

Deidara collected their menus and said. "No problem, yeah. You're food will come soon."

About a minute after he left Tenten found her voice. "Prodigy? Since when were you a prodigy?"

Neji smirked and leaned back in his chair. "Always been." He tapped his head. "It's in the Hyuuga blood. You'll note that Hinata's smart too. Hanabi too, she's in all advanced classes, but she's not as good as she could be. Maybe she was dropped on the head."

She laughed. "Why do you hate her so much? Hanabi's not that bad. She's a good kid."

"You didn't grow up with her." His ran a hand through his hair. "Hinata was quiet, which was good. But Hanabi was loud and reckless."

"I see. You're lucky though. I wish I had siblings."

It was silent for a moment. Then Neji said, "Why don't you have a surname? You didn't have one in college."

Tenten sighed. "I was adopted. My real parents could be dead for all I know or care. I never bothered finding out who they were. And taking the last name of my adopter's didn't feel right, so I dropped it. So it's Tenten now. Just Tenten."

Before anything else could be said, a loud voice reached them. "Neji, Tenten!" both said people looked up to see that Ino and Hinata had just walked in with Naruto and Kiba in tow. It was Ino who had shouted as Hinata was blushing a very tomato-like colour from being so close to Naruto. The four followed the same girl two in to a table not far from where they were sitting.

Tenten was slightly confused. How Ino had worked her magic that time was beyond her. From what she knew Kiba liked Hinata who liked Naruto who liked Sakura who liked Sasuke and the list goes on and on. Ino however, only had her sights set on Shikamaru who was nowhere in sight, so the only reasonable explanation was that the blonde was playing matchmaker.

Okay, Tenten was now unconfused.

Only now, she was slightly agitated because Ino had run over to a visit to their table. "What are you guys doing here? Are you on a _date_?"

Tenten thought she sounded like a little kid. But it was Neji who answered. "No. We're just having lunch."

"Right. I was just thinking that since Christmas is only about a week away we should have a little get together. If not then we should all go to the bar on the thirtieth, you're only young once, right?" She winked at them with her startlingly blue eyes.

"Sure. I'll call you sometime Ino." Tenten said, offhandedly. This made the blonde grin.

She skipped back over to her table and said something to Hinata. Within the minute she'd grabbed her purse gone out the door and out of the building lot. Hinata, however, was now shocked to find herself alone with the two boys.

"Poor Hinata." Tenten sighed. With one look at Neji's face she sighed again. "Don't go being the over protective big cousin type person now. Hinata can handle herself. I think she carries pepper spray in her purse, so if either of them try anything she'll squirt their eyes out. Now calm down. The food's here."

And so it was. After another short and rather entertaining conversation with Deidara they began to eat.

Lunch went by well, with light conversation. They left with a leaving a tip and had another light conversation on the way back to Neji's car where he held his hand out. "I'll drive. I know a place that I think you'll like?"

She tossed him the keys. "Sounds cool. How far is it?"

"Around twenty minutes."

It turned out to be a half hour. Neji took her to a place by the lake. They drove around the outskirts of the water until there were no more roads. When Neji told her that they would be walking for a couple more minute she laughed.

"Just letting you know, Hyuuga, I carry pepper spray too." She joked.

Ten minutes and treacherous footing later they had reached a small clearing. "My father took me hear when I was young." He explained. "He told me a story about ninja's, or shinobi, and how they were believed to exist a long time ago. Historians think it's a load of bull though, but my family dates way back.

"It's said that there was a war that killed the last of the ninja and it occurred right here." He walked over to a nearby tree and heaved himself up to a branch some ways about the ground. Tenten followed him and he lifted up a thicket of leaves so she could see. "Not many people know about this place, it may only be my family that knows." After some heaving he finally managed to pull the leaves away.

From the ground Tenten awed. There were many scratched on the tree and sticking out from the trunk up high were several kunai knives. "Wow."

Neji jumped down and landed next to her. "I thought you might like this. You're an archaeologist after all. It would be good experience to study a myth."

Suddenly her heart sank. Tenten though he'd brought her here because he wanted to, not because of her job. But still, that wasn't enough to take her away from the awe. Walking over to another tree, she lifted up the thicket of leaves as well. This trunk revealed several shruiken stars as well, even some dried blood. "Wow." She repeated.

"There's more." He led her though a dense patch of trees and Tenten thought he was randomly picking his way through when he stopped her. "Careful, you don't fall. It's not an archaeological sight, but I thought you would like it."

"Neji, it's beautiful."

They were standing on a cliff overlooking the lake. The sun hung bright and low over the water and Tenten couldn't help but think that the light reflection looked a little bit like a heart.

* * *

**A/N:** Well that's it folks.  
Sorry if Neji was a little OOC  
Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated :D  
**fanny-kun**


	9. Shopping For Gifts

**A/N:** Back to the plot :D  
I'd like to thank all my reviewers.  
Sorry for the late updates (:  
Enjoy chapter neuf!

**Disclaimer:** no ownage.

* * *

"You like her?"

"Yes. So what?"

"Ask her out then."

"And if she says no?"

"She won't."

"How do you know?" Neji thought for a moment then looked at his blonde friend. "Why am I talking to you anyways? What do you know?"

Naruto grinned, finally looking up from his bowl of ramen. "If you don't trust me then you should ask Kakashi. He's pro at getting chicks out."

Then he went back to his ramen. The name Kakashi made a light bulb flicker in his head, but he wasn't too sure who that was. Then he remembered. "Oh. You mean Hatake Kakashi who works along Gai in the police force?" he asked, "Isn't that guy a pervert?"

But Naruto didn't reply, instead he looked directly out the window, a look of weariness crossing his face. Neji followed the blonde's blue eyes out of the ramen booth and onto the walkway across the street.

He really didn't like what he saw.

Though the faces couldn't clearly be seen, there was no mistaking the brunette girl. Who else wore their hair in two buns on the top of their heads?

It wasn't Tenten who made him not like what he saw. In fact, on any other circumstance he would have been positively, though he would never show it, delighted to see her.

It was the person who she was with he had a problem with.

Kankorou walked right next to her, and from the distance Neji was at, he was moving his arms around and his mouth was a blur. Meaning, he was talking to her.

Correction, _one_ of his arms was moving around. The other was connected to the hand, which was grasping on to Tenten's.

Oh no, Neji's going to be mad now.

"You should go hit him."

Naruto's voice brought him out of his stupor. After several calming breaths Neji took a sip from his glass of water. "Why would I? It's not like I care. Tenten and I are just friends anyways." There was a pause as he took another sip, downing the rest of the glass. "Besides, it's not like he's done anything wrong."

"Dude, you're a horrible liar." At this, Neji wondered why the blonde had stopped eating his ramen. Then he noticed that his bowl was empty. Damn. "It's so obvious that you want to punch his lights out, so just do it."

"No. I'm not troubled at all by the prospect that Tenten and Kankorou," It took much of his will power not to call him 'that bastard', "Are…together." It also took much of his will power to get say that.

The blonde shrugged and ordered another bowl of ramen. "Suit yourself."

Not particularly in the mood to watch Naruto gorge himself with the noodles, Neji grabbed his jacket and walked out of the little shop. The chilling late December wind reminded him once again that Christmas was in two days and he still needed to get some shopping done. Neji shuddered inwardly, he hated shopping.

A loud laugh interrupted his cursing of gift purchasing as it drifted through to him. Neji snapped his head to the direction where it came from.

Tenten and Kankorou were tiny silhouettes by now, but he could just make out them close together for a hug and he didn't want to think of what else.

With a sound of disgust, Neji made his way to the parking lot. When he was already standing amidst the cars did he realise he had walked today due to the icy roads. He swore quietly and trudged his was to the piling up snow back to his house.

After several minutes of travelling in the snow, he reached his home. Once inside he made himself a warm cup of coffee then went back outside and started his car. He then made his way to a mall to attempt to find some last-minute Christmas presents; he tended to be a procrastinator.

So, an hour later he'd bough gifts for pretty much everyone.

Everyone except Tenten, he wasn't particularly sure what to get her.

And when all else fails, you head to the department store, which is exactly what he did. When he got there, he was as lost as he had started.

Thankfully, a familiar voice helped him out. "Oh, hey Neji. Do you need help in anything?" Spinning around, he spotted Sakura dressed in the store uniform.

"That'd be great." He paused for a second. "I thought you worked with Ino?"

Sakura laughed. "Ino-chan? I wouldn't work for her, she doesn't pay people enough. I'm still in school unlike everyone else who's already got their profession. This is just a part-time job." She looked him over. "What are you looking for?"

"A Christmas present for," Neji hesitated. Would it give off the wrong vibe if he said it was for Tenten? "For a friend." Yes, that would work. Nothing suspicious about shopping for a friend. "I'm not sure what to get her."

"Her?" Sakura smirked. "Anyone I know?"

Ah, he'd messed up. Before Neji could even debate in his mind the lie had slipped out. "No, you don't know her." What she doesn't know can't hurt her.

"Alright then. So you're looking for a present for a friend, but you can't find anything good to get her. Hmm, could you tell me anything about her? Her personality and stuff?"

"Uh," What could he say about Tenten? "She's great. She loves to laugh and I'm pretty sure not a lot of people have seen her cry." What else? "She's trustworthy and funny and beautiful."

Then he mentally slapped himself. Beautiful? What a thing to say! Now Sakura must think he's in love with some girl.

Well he was…wait, no he wasn't. He _was not_.

But it sure sounded like he was because Sakura raised an eyebrow and smirked again. "Sounds like you two are really good friends. Have you thought about some jewellery?"

"Jewellery?" To be honest, the thought had actually not crossed his mind.

"Yeah. Come over here." She led him to a small area with glass cabinets. Getting inside the door herself, she stood opposite him. "There are expensive things over here, mainly diamonds. You might want to think of that, girls like diamonds."

Neji looked down at the displays. They were pretty. "Hmm." Was all he said.

"And over here are different gems. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires and things. You could get her a birthstone necklace, when's her birthday?"

"March 9th." He scolded himself, wouldn't Sakura know when one of her friend's birthdays was? Oh well, it was too late now. He decided to cover it up. "I might get one of those for Hinata, though."

Sakura laughed. "Too late. I already got her one of them, turquoise for the 27th of December. Hinata loves animals though, get her a kitten."

"Good idea." He mumbled, something having caught his eye. "What's the March birthstone?"

Sakura thought for a moment. "Aquamarine. But that's the modern one, the traditional one is bloodstone and the mythical one is jade. Another one is rock crystals." She smiled at the bewildered look on his face. "It's part of the job."

"I see. What does bloodstone look like?"

She ducked under and pulled out a necklace with a deep green stone. On the green were splashes of blue and reddish orange. "It's pretty, but I would suggest the aquamarine. It gives off a nice shine."

"Hm." He really was debating, really he was. Can I see your stock with the aquamarine gem?" He waited as she ducked down once more, this time coming up with several objects.

She laid them down in front of him and he observed. One on particular caught his eye. "How much for that one."

"That one's a bit pricey. 16,500 yen.(**1**)" She waved to the other ones. "But that's because the necklace is 14k gold and the stones are pretty large with several diamonds. Not to mention the silver pendant, so if you think about it, it's a pretty good price…"

Stopping her mid-ramble, Neji handed her his credit card, only saying one thing. "Could you wrap it up?

Only then did he realise that he really was a lovesick fool.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Tenten browsed through the store's shelves, silently cursing herself for not buying Christmas gifts earlier. It wasn't like her; she was usually the first to get things done.

The only good thing about this procrastination was that there were several sales. Oh well, if she was going to be stressed she might as well save money doing it.

Mentally, she checked off the list in her head. She'd gotten gifts for her best friends, her old friends, and even some friends she'd lost contact with. But there was this feeling that she'd forgotten someone…

"Neji." She groaned. "I need to get something for Neji."

Sighing, she turned herself out of the perfume department where she'd picked out a rather delicious fragrance for Hinata, and walked to the auto depot. After all, Neji did love his car.

But still, what to get him? Tenten looked over the shelves, most were repair things and his BMW was too lovely to be repaired. She racked her brain for what she'd gotten the other guys.

Then did she realise she'd gotten them all gift cards. She never really was good at shopping for the other gender.

She could get Neji clothes, but then decided against it. He dressed nicely, unlike Kankorou who rarely ever matched, so she didn't need to help his wardrobe at all. He didn't eat too much, unlike Naruto who she'd bought a gift card to a ramen shop. And unlike Sasuke, his hair didn't stick up so it looked like a dead bird.

Maybe she could get Neji a pair of scissors to cut his hair?

No, Neji with short hair would be like Shikamaru with no ponytail: just plain weird.

Maybe he'd like a watch? Guys liked big expensive watches, right? Well, at least Kankorou did. Then she sighed. She'd been feeling guilty ever since she'd been with Kankorou again. Now that she thought of it she didn't even remember _why_ she'd given him a second chance.

It made her feel really guilty. But it's not like she liked Neji right?

No, she didn't.

As Tenten made her way over to the watch section, she spotted a head of pink hair, reminding her again that Sakura worked here. She walked over to her friend. "Hey Sakura."

The pinkette spun around and smiled. "Hey Tenten, you'd never guess who was just here."

"Who?"

"Neji!" Tenten frowned while Sakura grinned. "And get this, he bought this expensive necklace for some girl. Isn't that so sweet?"

Heart. Plummeting. Can't breath.

After taking a minute to calm down, Tenten forced a smile. "That's good for him. Who's the girl?"

"He didn't say, he only said that she was a friend. But he said I didn't know her. Her birthday's March 9th, the same as yours, Ten." She gushed. "But I think he really likes her, he called her beautiful! It's been a while since I've heard a guy call a girl that, usually they say 'hot' but yeah, it was really sweet."

"Oh." She said quietly. Not wanting to feel said, she forced a smirk. "You're starting to sound like Ino, Sakura. Don't go turning into a gossip now, it's unbecoming." The two friends shared a laugh. "So Sasuke's never called you beautiful?"

She blushed. "Well he has but…but…but not like Neji was just talking. He was really sincere. Whoever it is, she's one lucky girl."

Tenten didn't understand why the conversation kept going to Neji. "Yeah. Lucky." She was with Kankorou, she and Neji weren't even together. She had no right to be sad, but she was. She really was.

"Anyways, Tens, what were you looking for?"

The present shopping had slipped her mind.

"Nothing, thanks."

* * *

**A/N:** Ah Tenten, how could you not get Neji a present T-T

(**1**) 16,500 yen is approximately 155 dollars. Just letting you guys know.

Thanks for reading!  
Reviews make me update faster ;)  
**fanny-kun**


	10. Tis the Season

**A/N:** Ah, an update. I feel proud.  
Very proud.  
So, the climax will be in a chapter or two-ish.  
Just warning y'all.  
Thanks to all my reviewers! Ta, dahlings.  
Enjoy chapter ten:D  
**  
Disclaimer:** I own the plot. Go me. That is all.

* * *

"Merry Christmas." 

Neji held out a rather large gift wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper. His pale eyes were adverted from Tenten's face as she stared at it. After a moment's hesitation she took it with a tentative smile. "Thanks, why don't you come in for some tea?"

Something in his mind told him that she was being oddly polite, but he pushed that aside. It was Christmas and all. Slipping off his shoes he followed her into the living room where Haterou was playing with several shiny new toys.

The room was very festive. A pine tree stood handsomely in front of the window with lights flashing different colours. There were paper snowflakes that hung from the walls and the fireplace was roaring. Neji walked over to the young boy and kneeled down. "Merry Christmas Haterou."

Haterou took the gift with such a huge smile that you would never realise he was sick. "Merry Christmas, Neji-chan!"

He smiled and ruffled the child's hair. Standing up, he walked to the kitchen where Tenten was boiling some water. She didn't look up as he sat down at the table. "Christmas is the time for family, Neji. Shouldn't you be with yours?"

"You know, you sound like you don't want me here." His tone was joking, but the statement was serious. "It's only ten o'clock. Hanabi probably isn't even awake yet. Besides, I needed to give you your gift."

"Oh. Well, thank you." The kettle whistled and she was silent as she poured the tea. "It's not that I don't want you here…it's just that Kankorou's coming by soon and, well…"

He took the tea gratefully. "And he wouldn't be happy to see me."

Tenten smiled. "No, he wouldn't be."

She sat down across from him and they were silent for a moment. "I saw you with him the other day."

"Hm." Tenten reached out for a magazine, which just happened to be sitting right next to her. "You did, did you?"

"Hn." It was silent for a moment and all that could be heard was the turning of a page. "So are you two…"

"Together? Yeah."

"Ah." Another silence. "Why?"

Tenten looked up, her chocolaty brown eye narrowed. "What do you mean 'why', huh? I like him, he likes me, we got together. What's to 'why' about that?"

He shrugged and took a sip of his tea, his pale eyes staring directly into hers. "I mean _why_. The last time I met him, I recall him punching me in the jaw. It bruised, you know."

"So you're telling me not go out with him because he hit you?" she said in disbelief that somehow seemed forced, "I'd be surprised if there was anyone who _didn't_ want to hit you, with your high and mighty attitude."

Neji remained calm, as was the Hyuuga way. "Do you want to hit me?"

"Huh?" his statement had obviously caught her off guard and she now looked at him win genuine disbelief. "Me? Well, I, uh…" She rambled on for another moment. "Yes. Yes I do."

He turned his head slightly so his right jaw was facing her. He tapped it. "Then go for it. Hit me as hard as you can." When she didn't do anything, he smirked and righted his head. "Since you're not going to, can you answer my question?"

"Your question…?" She trailed off. "Oh. That question. Well…" she placed a hand on her cheek, something Neji noticed that she didn't when she was thinking. "He seemed really sincere when he was apologizing. And I felt that Haterou should get to know his father. He's really attached to Kankorou-kun, you know."

"Ah." Neji took another sip of his tea, which seemed to just lose all its flavour.

After another moment of silence Tenten's face suddenly turned into a scowl. "What about _you_? Don't you have girlfriend?" Something in her voice made hte question seem accusing.

He put down his nearly empty cup and stared at her for so long that Tenten started feeling unnerved. "Do I?"

"Well that's what Sakura said…"

"And why would Sakura kno – oh." He now remembered at the mall. "You mean her."

She frowned, not quiet understanding what he was saying. "Her? Probably…? So who's she?"

"Just a girl." It was no lie.

"Is she your friend?"

"Yes." Still no lies.

"So she's your girlfriend."

Neji was now the one wearing the expression of disbelief. "How old are you, Tenten?" Said girl furrowed her eyebrows, trying to detect the faint sarcasm she swore she heard. "Honestly. You're a girl and you're my friend aren't you? You need to start acting mature."

"It's not that I'm immature." She started, finally putting down her own tea. "It's just that you're too mature to be twenty-two years old. I mean, come on! We're at our golden age where we can do practically anything we want before we're strapped to a family and mortgage. You need to get out more, head out to the bar, get drunk, act your age." She stopped, picking up the magazine again. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were an old man. The only thing that makes you your age is your hormones." She let her words sink in for the effect. "Who's the girl anyways?"

"Someone."

Tenten sighed in frustration. "Fine. We're playing twenty questions. If I guess right, the you'll tell me." Her tone made it clear that he had no say in the matter. "Do I know her?"

"Yes." _Very well, in fact_. Neji had picked up his teacup again.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No." _She already has a boyfriend_.

"Is she pretty?"

"No." _She's beautiful_.

Tenten, being a very smart girl, sighed and rephrased her question. "Is she beautiful?"

"Yes." _Very much so_.

"Do you like her?"

There was a pause before this answer. "Yes." _I might just love her_.

"Does she like you back?"

"No."_ I can only wish she did_.

"Is she a blonde, brunette, redhead?"

"No, yes, no." _Jeez, it's so obvious, when will you figure it out? _

Before any more questions could be asked, the doorbell rang. The look on Tenten's face looked as if it were death himself. "Shit. That's Kankorou, he'll be really mad if he knew you were here. Did you drive your car?" The boy shook his head. "Thank Kami. Go out the back door." Before he could reply the doorbell rang again and he felt himself being pushed out the door. She yelled to the front door as she opened the back one. "Coming!

"Merry Christmas, Neji!" then the door slammed in his face.

Tenten ran to the front and opened the door. Sure enough, it was Kankorou wearing a goofy grin and holding out a present. "Hey girl, Merry Christmas."

She smiled weakly back and took the gift. "Merry Christmas. Come in, yours is in here…"

She trailed off remember she'd never gotten Neji a gift. Scolding herself, she led him into the living room where Haterou had somehow fallen asleep on the couch. Before anything else could be done, Tenten felt herself spin around as Kankorou placed a hand on her forehead.

"You okay, girl? You seem kinda out of it. Have you been stressing yourself again?" Tenten smiled meekly and looked over to her, _their_, child. Kankorou followed her gaze and smiled too. "Don't worry, kay? He'll be fine. Everything will be good after the operation."

"Yeah…" She was silent for a while. "Come in the kitchen, I'll make you some coffee." Kankorou preferred coffee over tea, which she didn't much approve of. Tea was better for you.

He followed her into the kitchen and noticed at the same time he did that there were two cups of tea on the table. Both half empty. She swore mentally as he frowned. "Did you have company over?"

What to say, what to say? Tenten racked her brain for anything that could get her out of spilling that Neji was there. "Ino said something about reading tea leaves. She said that if you have to cups on a special day and interpret the leaves then something good'll happen." She thanked herself for using tea leaves that morning. "I'm not that kind of person, but Ino was so into getting me to do it. And Christmas is a special day, right?"

"How come they're not empty?"

Tenten raised an eyebrow. "What's this? Twenty questions?" Ah, the irony. "Are you accusing me of something?"

"No girl, definitely not." He walked up and kissed her warmly. "I love you."

"Uhm." He obviously expected her to say the same thing back. She buried herself into the hug and said into her shirt to it was muffled. "I love you too."

But one question hung in her head.

_Do I really? _

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"You're a baka."

That was the first thing Hanabi said to him when he walked through the front door of the Hyuuga manor. Neji was about to retort when he looked up and saw much of the family there. Cousins and distant relatives and such. Obviously Hiashi had planned a whole get-together for Christmas.

Oh joy.

Neji slung off his coat and slipped off his shoes and begun to make his way around saying greetings. He put on a fake smile as people congratulated him for inheriting the company.

"Neji-nii?" He turned around to see Hinata smiling up at him in a very un-Hinata manner. He raised an eyebrow. "You've been with Tenten again, haven't you?"

"How did you know?" This was getting suspicious.

"You smell l-like tea." She noted the bewildered look on his face. "Tenten-chan loves t-tea. Her whole house s-smells like she's always drinking some. You smell like tea t-too, Neji-nii." Odd. Neji'd never noticed the tea scent. Maybe because he liked tea so much himself. "D-do you like her, Neji-nii?"

Damn. It was something about those silent types; they're such keen observers.

"We're just friends, Hinata."

"Oh. Well a-anyways. I don't want you t-to worry. I don't think s-she'll be with Kankorou-san for long." With that, the girl turned and walked away to have a conversation with another girl her age who Neji didn't recognise, but shared the same eyes as the rest of the family.

"You're a baka." It was Hanabi again. She was back to torment him.

"Would you mind telling me why I'm an idiot?"

The younger Hyuuga smirked and started tailing him as he walked away. "Isn't it _obvious_, Neji-nii?" One look to his face told her that it wasn't. "Well I _could_ tell you, but it will take some persuasion. How about lending me your car another week?"

"No. Ask your father to buy you a car. I bought mine myself, and I'm not letting you wreck it."

Hanabi frowned. "I won't wreck your car! I just love the looks people give me when I step out of it. It gets a lot of guys you know." Great, Neji did not need to hear this. "You know what, I think I might get one. How much was it?"

"Too much for you to afford on your own."

"Hm." She said thoughtfully. Both cousins smiled sweetly as an elderly Hyuuga came by to talk to them. After the old woman left, Hanabi said. "Tenten likes you."

The statement caught him off guard, but he had a reputation to keep and he made no show that it meant anything to him. "So? She has a boyfriend."

"Romantic interference, the best part of the plot." Hanabi had been reading many romance fanfictions lately. "Just tell her you like her and she'll dump him for you. Believe me, that's what always happens to characters – oops, I meant people. People, not characters – that are meant for each other."

"This isn't a story, Hanabi. It's life."

But the younger girl merely laughed and winked. "But Neji-nii, you'll find the best stories are based on life."

* * *

**A/N:** It was surprisingly easy to write about Christmas in March..  
I love writing Hanabi. She's so flexible.  
As well as any other non-main characters.  
You manipulate them to your will.  
bwahaha.  
Thanks for reading! Reviewers get Christmas cookies ;)  
**fanny-kun**


	11. Lost in Many Thoughts

**A/N:** Oh, I'm a bit late, sorries :D  
So it's march break, so I'm hoping to squeeze in at least two more chapter before the week's over.  
Just telling you all (:  
Thanks so much to my reviewers!  
Enjoy chapter 11!  
**  
Disclaimer:** Anything you recognise isn't mine. But the rest is :D

* * *

"Tenten's great isn't she?"

It was the thirtieth of December, only two hours away from the New Year. Everyone, even Hinata, was at the bar just hanging out. Neji though, was engrossed in a game of pool with three other people. The longhaired boy found himself wondering why on earth Kankorou was talking to him.

Neji also wondered why on earth Kankorou was talking to him about Tenten.

The nerve of that man. Neji wanted to punch his lights out.

"Yes, she's very nice." His voice was strained as he leaned over the table, lining his pole up with the white ball. He was playing solids, and maybe if he thought of the white ball as Kankorou's head then he could hit it hard enough to get the orange one it.

"I think I'm going to ask her to marry me."

When Kankorou said this, Neji practically fell over. He hit the ball, but it went a completely opposite way then he intended it to. To his horrible luck the white ball hit, out of all the ones on the table, hit the 8 ball, knocking it into a socket. He frowned as Naruto, who was playing on his side, have him a light punch on the shoulder. Kankorou, who was playing on the other side with Kiba, grinned as the two set up for a new game.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Tenten's not one to get married at such a young age. Ask her again in a decade or so." Neji reached over and grabbed a beer from the waiters trolley as the man walked passed.

Kankorou opened his mouth to retort when Tenten came up to the table holding a martini delicately in her fingers. She grinned down at the table, "So, who won?"

"We did." Kankorou said proudly, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Neji there carelessly knocked in the 8 ball." He winked across the table at Neji seeming to say 'let's keep it a secret between us'.

"Tsk. I always thought you were more co-ordinated than that." She suddenly stopped and took a sniff in Kankorou's direction. She frowned as she moved away from him. "I thought you said you'd quit smoking."

He shrugged nonchalantly, even though there was a frown on his face too. "I'm trying, girl, you know I am. It's harder than it might seem though. But I'm really trying, I'll stop soon."

"You better, smoking kills, you know."

He chuckled and wrapped his arm around her again. "I didn't know you cared so much."

Tenten didn't reply, but simply smiled as Naruto bent over the break the triangle of balls to start the new game. She blonde stood up and grinned stupidly after getting a solid ball in on the first go. "Looks like we're solid, Neji. Try not to lose this time."

"Yeah, I just remembered something I need to do. I'll be back but let Sasuke play for now." Neji had reached his arm out and pulled the Uchiha out from what seemed to be thin air. He handed the frowning raven-haired boy his pole and some chalk and walked away in the direction of the bar.

Suddenly, he felt a small tug at his sleeve and he turned to see Tenten walking next to him, a concerned look on her face. "Hey, you okay? You seem kind of out of it."

"I'm fine." He twisted the cap of the beer in his hands so it came off and tossed it into a nearby trash bin. He started to take a sip, but stopped halfway to his mouth and put the beer down on the table and sighed.

Tenten watched somewhat amusedly. "So what, you're off alcohol now? What did I tell you? You act so old."

"It's not that. I'm a designated driver." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, regretting his decision. He really could use some alcohol right now.

"Fantastic." Tenten grinned and grabbed the beer he had set down and replaced it with her own empty martini glass. "You can drive me home." She laughed as she took a swig of the beer.

He sighed and shook his head, smiling. "Didn't you drive here?"

"Nope, I came with Ino. But if you look over there, she's the one laughing really loudly. She's intoxicated." Then he noticed the frown on her face. "Don't worry though, Shikamaru'll probably drive her home."

Neji raised an eyebrow at her. "How come it's the guys that are staying sober? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" He paused for a moment. "Where's Haterou, anyway?"

She shrugged and raised her bottle to her mouth again. "He wanted to stay go to my okaa-san's house. It was all the better for me, I'll pick him up tomorrow."

"If you don't have a horrible hangover, that is." He smiled as she laughed.

"Don't worry so much, Neji. I have a high tolerance, so it's all good."

"I think that might actually make things worse." She laughed again and there was a loud squeal. Both of them turned to see that Ino had fallen off her chair and was giggling like mad.

Tenten let out a bark like laugh. "Haha, worse? If I had a low tolerance like Ino-chan then I'd be like her right now." Then she looked again at Neji's face and frowned. She leaned over and placed a hand on his forehead. "You don't feel sick, but you look horrible, like you've seen a ghost.

At his, he laughed quietly. "Not quite a ghost." Tenten puzzled over this for a moment and Neji caught her by surprise when he grabbed onto her shoulder. "I need you to tell me something."

She looked quizzically at him, locking her brown eyes to his pale ones. It struck her once again how incredible pale his eyes were, almost as if he were blind. She snapped her self out of her reverie and pulled her eyes away. "Yeah?"

"How much to you like Kankorou?"

The question caught Tenten off guard, to say the least. She stood there, opening her mouth and closing it again, making her resemble a fish out of water. Nothing was said for at least a minute, as Tenten tried to regain control of her vocal cords.

"What do you mean?"

Neji sighed; he should have guessed that she wouldn't answer the question straight out. "It's not a hard question Tenten. _How much do you like Kankorou_?"

Indignantly, she shook his hand off her shoulder and made a pouty face. "And what's that supposed to mean? Why do you care how much I like him? What, are you jealous or something?"

"Just answer the question."

She was about to say something else, but her witty retort got lost as she saw the desperation in his eyes, as if this were a life or death matter.

"I…I lo – " Tenten stopped herself, thinking the question that had been bothering her for a whole. Did she really love Kankorou? She pondered so long, that she forgot to finish her sentence.

Before anything else could happen, she found herself being pulled into a hug by Neji. To him, an unfinished answer answered everything. She didn't know if she loved him, which was as good as anything he could have asked for.

He hugged her tightly, knowing that was about as close to her as he was ever going to get. He saw the way people looked at her, but Tenten couldn't help it if she was beautiful. She couldn't help it if she was the girl of every man's dreams. Neji sighed as he let her go.

"Thank you."

Without a final glance, he walked back to the game of pool, leaving Tenten staring quizzically after him.

"Ooh, that was intense."

The brunette turned to see Hanabi leaning against the table, a knowing smirk on her lips. Tenten frowned when she saw a glass in her hands and walked over to take it away. "What are you doing here? You're not old enough to drink legally, so you shouldn't be at the bar."

Hanabi twisted away as the other girl made to grab her drink. "Woah, calm down Tenten. It's ginger ale, I'm not breaking any laws." She held it out so the brunette could sniff it. "Anyways, that was a pretty dramatic moment between you and my cousin there. I mean, did you see his eyes? And the way he asked the question? I think he's in love, Tennie."

The young girl giggled, and Tenten began to doubt that the young girl didn't have anything to drink. Shrugging, she took a long sip of her beer. "In love? Yeah I know, Neji already told me he was in love."

Hanabi stopped laughing and adopted a somewhat solemn look.

"He told you? Well, he must be braver than I thought. So, what about you?"

Tenten raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"

The younger girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "I mean; you have know how obvious it is that you like him! Just once at you two and people can tell the electricity just like that." She snapped her fingers to indicate what she meant.

But the look on Tenten's face said that she didn't know it was obvious. "What do you mean electricity? I have a boyfriend and Neji's in love with some other girl who I don't know. There's absolutely nothing between us?

"Some other girl?" Hanabi laughed so loudly that some surrounding people looked over curiously to see what the joke was. "Honestly Tenten, how dense can you get? Can you seriously not tell that Neji's in love wit – "

"Hanabi!" the two girls turned around to see Hinata walk up to them, a frown on her face.

A nervous smile crept across Hanabi's face as she saw her older sister come. "Ah, hello Hinata-nee-chan. How are you this lovely evening?"

"Hanabi, if otou-san knew y-you were here, he'd – " She was cut off by her sister's pleading.

" – Hinata-nee, you're not going to tell him are you? Please don't. Otou-san will kill me! He'll _murder_ me. But I wanted to get out, I mean, the New Year is only half an hour away! Please don't help him?"

From what Tenten knew of the youngest Hyuuga, Hanabi was an outspoken tough girl. To see her begging Hinata like that was somewhat comical.

"A-alright. If otou-san asks, I'll t-tell him you were with me. This is the last time I b-bail you out, Hanabi." All three of them knew it was a lie. Hinata wouldn't be Hinata if she let people get in trouble. "But you have to stay where I can s-see you. Come."

And with that the two sisters left, leaving Tenten more confused than ever.

What would an eighteen-year-old girl know that she didn't? Surely Neji wouldn't talk about his love life with his family.

Before she could ponder much more, Kankorou had suddenly appeared beside her. "You enjoying yourself, girl?"

Tenten smiled in what hoped to be a happy way. But inside, her mind was going crazy.

Everything started happening again when she ran into, literally, Neji a month ago. Her life had been good before that, and he made her life great. Maybe she did love him. Maybe she did think of him as more then a friend.

"Hey, you okay?" Kankorou looked concernedly at her and her mind switched gears and thought about him. She'd met him in high school, my random coincidence. He was studying to go into an entrepreneurial business, while she still didn't know what to do about her future. They were polar opposites, but she'd loved him once for certain. But it was different now, he might be the father of her son, but she wasn't sure if she was still in love with him.

Tenten took one last sip of her beer, draining the bottle. Then she smiled up at him.

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine."

* * *

**A/N:** So, I'm on a tight schedule today and I didnt have time to edit this chapter (not that my editing is great anyway xD)  
So apologies if theres more spelling and grammar mistakes than usual (:  
And Hanabi seems to be in this fic a lot..hm, wonder why that is ;)  
She's probably going to be a main character now, just saying :D  
Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated!  
**fanny-kun**


	12. Loved and Gone

**A/N:** Ah, I believe this is the chapter we've all been waiting for.  
...the climax..  
It's not as extravegant as I'd originally planned, so sorry about that.  
But enjoy chapter twelve :D  
**  
Disclaimer:** Three guesses to whether I own or not.

* * *

_I love you. Will you marry me? _

Tenten read those seven words over and over again until there was no possible way she had misinterpreted it. She noticed that her mouth was hanging open slightly and she re-read the little note. When the words passed through her mind for what seemed like the hundredth time, she slammed her mouth shut and acted though this was no surprise.

She had no one to blame her shock on but herself; most people would have seen this coming from a mile away.

It was the second of January, and a cold one it was. It was nearly a blizzard outside and Tenten had almost cancelled her date with Kankorou to a fancy little Chinese restaurant. But he insisted, he would not take no for an answer.

So she took the only other option and said yes. Haterou was at the hospital again, so she wasn't doing anything splendid that night anyways.

Dinner was great, Tenten loved Chinese food, and she ate it whenever she could.

But the surprise came in the fortune cookie.

Okay, so Kankorou knew that putting a ring and a note asking for her hand in marriage inside a little fortune cookie wasn't very original, but it was the perfect way to propose to Tenten.

"I meant to ask you yesterday, girl. You know, to add to the magic of the New Year and all. But I couldn't get a hold of you." The little guilt monster in Tenten's stomach moved, she had spent yesterday with Neji and her son. Best not to mention that. "Are you okay? I guess this is a bit of a shock." He grinned at the expression on her face.

Was she okay? Oh don't worry, she was at a loss for words, suffocating in confusion, and surprised enough to pee her pants; but she was fine. Oh so perfectly fine. Somehow, Tenten managed to give out a wry smile that she hoped didn't give away any of the mumble jumble going on inside her confused brain.

Kankorou's grin widened. He was quite confident that night, when most guys would be shaking from nervousness. But he knew everything would go fine.

After all, he was the father to her son.

After all, they had known each other since high school.

After all, they were at the perfect age. Not too old, not too young.

And after all that, Tenten really had no reason for her to say no.

Except for the fact that Kankorou didn't know that she was in love with Neji and she was questioning her feelings. But let's not get into that.

"Kankorou…I don't know what to say." Tenten had lifted up the ring, which had clattered onto the table as soon as the fortune cookie was broken in half. It really was quite lovely. One large diamond stood out on a gold band, and on either side of that were three other diamonds, growing steadily smaller.

Tenten knew it must have cost a fortune. And she was quite sure that she wasn't worth that much to him.

Or he wasn't worth that much to her? Oh, life was confusing.

"Then say yes." Yes, it was a cheesy cliché thing to say but he didn't care. Kankorou reached over and locked hands with both of Tenten's. Both were fully aware that they had become the centre of attention for the restaurant and nearly everyone in the vicinity was looking there way with looks saying 'that's so sweet', even the cooks had come out of the kitchen. Some pedestrians had stopped to look in the window. All the attention made Tenten feel like she was in a movie, where she thought only this kind of thing happened.

Still, Tenten hesitated. She wasn't sure what to do, not at all. It would be horrid to turn him down in front of all these people. One look in his pleading eyes decided everything.

Biting her lip, she slipped the golden ring around the fourth finger on her left hand. She leaned her head back and examined the effect of the shimmering diamonds on her finger. She looked up and smiled sadly, nearly closing her eyes so as to not let out the tears that were threatening her.

"Yes. I will."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The booming sound of Neji's fist slamming down on his uncle's living room coffee table made both his cousins look up from their books in surprise. Despite the fact that they were family, it was quite uncommon for those three to be in the same household building, as Hinata and Neji had already moved to their own homes and Hanabi was still in high school, therefore living with her father. Though once in a while, they got together to have dinner. But Hanabi swore it was because her father missed Hinata's fantastic cooking.

Neji himself nearly started. He looked down at his hand in surprise, as if blaming it for the noise he had made. If it'd woken up Hiashi, who was asleep upstairs, all three of them would be in trouble. And they knew it because it was silent for a moment. The tension seemed to lift like a blanket when nothing happened.

Hanabi snorted. "Jeez Neji-nii, what's up now?" She asked, as turned back to her work of copying notes from the textbook.

"I've decided that I'm going to tell Tenten." He wondered for a brief moment as to why he was sharing this with his family. Possibly it was because they were the only people around him currently.

The two sisters looked up at him; one wearing caring smile the other looked like she was about to laugh. Three guesses to which sibling did which.

"That's great Neji-nii," Hanabi said, trying to keep a straight face as she turned back to textbook. "Excuse me if I don't throw you a party for finally being a man, it's just that I have a shit load of homework to do before I go back to school."

"Good for you Neji-nii." Hinata's tone was much less obnoxious than her sister's. "But I too have some work to do." Then she too turned back to her book, copying down notes as well.

It was silent between them for a while. But soon enough Neji headed to the closet to grab his jacket with a plan in his head to make a beeline straight to Tenten's house. It was snowing like crazy outside, but he would go through a blizzard for her.

"Can I borrow your car?" Hanabi yelled after him. She had been asking at random intervals now, hoping to surprise him into saying yes.

"Ask you Hinata." Came his muffled reply a split second before the front door slammed shut.

Hanabi turned to her older sister who owned a baby blue Mercedes convertible. It seemed that everyone in her family owned nice expensive cars except for her. Of course, they had all earned it themselves…

Hinata closed her eyes and smiled a smile that seemed to menacing and out of place for her kind face. She patted her younger sister on the head and turned back to her book.

That was the end of their conversation.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Neji slowed down when he neared Tenten's house to make sure Kankorou's car wasn't in her driveway. It had been a habit he'd developed in the past month, he didn't want to be face to face with Kankorou for more than was absolutely necessary.

To his luck, the only car in her driveway was Tenten's own blue Chevrolet. Neji sighed in relief as he pulled up beside it, being careful of the ice on the ground. He turned off the ignition, pocketed his keys, got out, walked to her front door, rang the doorbell, and waited.

And waited.

He didn't know what kept him rooted to the spot in the middle of the freezing snow.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was so determined to tell her: possibly.

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew she was standing behind the door waiting for him to leave: possibly.

Perhaps it was the fact that both of the above were true and he was positive she had enough heart as to not let him stay out for so long he'd freeze: probably.

Being a man true to his thoughts, the door opened four minutes later to reveal a Tenten who didn't look very happy. She sighed as she let him in and then ducked behind the door to close it again, hiding her face.

The next time Neji looked up, Tenten was wearing a smile that was perhaps a little too large. "Good evening, Hyuuga-san. It's eight o'clock, what brings you here?"

Neji froze and stiffly turned her head to look at her. Not even a minute ago, she looked unhappy, almost angry. Now she seemed ecstatic.

But that wasn't what surprised him.

What surprised him was the fact that she had called him Hyuuga-san. _Hyuuga-san_! The surname and the suffix 'san' is what you say to people that had just introduced themselves, strangers. It was a sign of polite respect. But they'd known each other for years. They were practically best friends. Even when they first spoke to each other Tenten called him 'Neji-san' which eventually turned to 'Neji-kun' which soon became just 'Neji'. She had always called him by his first name.

Not only that, but she was speaking as the barely knew each other. 'Good evening'? Hardly anybody says that when it isn't a formal occasion.

You don't suddenly go calling your good friends by their last names and act overly polite unless something was wrong. And Neji knew that something was wrong.

He looked at her worriedly. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Tenten's smile faltered ever so slightly. She seemed to attempt to fix it, but it just ended up looking so fake it was nearly blinding. Finally, she just frowned. "What do you mean? Of course everything's fine." She cursed herself for having such a shaky voice.

"I'm not sure it is. You shoul – " Neji stopped speaking when he caught sight of herleft hand. Tenten noticed this and tried to hide it in her pocked, but he was too fast. He caught her hand and held it so he could plainly see her ring finger.

It felt as if his heart had been ripped in two.

Tenten ripped her hand out it his and backed a step away. She could feel her eyes tearing up. Her voice was shaky again. "I'm sorry Hyuuga-san. You should go now. I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Try as she might, Tenten couldn't hold back her tears. They seemed to burst out of her eyes, almost blinding her. But still, she didn't move to wipe them away.

But Neji stood tall, planning to say what he came here to say. "Tenten, I like you. I love you. Please don't marry him." His voice hadn't sounded confident like he had wanted it to, instead it sounded like he was begging. Tenten bit her lip to prevent herself from sobbing.

"Hyuuga-san…" Then she started sobbing. "Damn it Neji…why are you telling me this now? Can't you see I'm happy? This is what I want. I want to be with Kankorou, I want to spend the rest of my life with him." Even she didn't believe half of what she said, but the sobs corrupting the sentences made her sound unbearably serious. "I loved you too, but you have a girlfriend that you just love, don't you? It broke my heart when I found out. I don't care about you Neji. I don't care if you love me now. I don't care, you fucking bastard."

The words pierced him. She wasn't shouting, in fact her voice was quite quiet. But the cold bitterness and disappointment made Neji wish she had screamed at him. Even a slap in the face would have been better. Anything would have been better.

"Tenten…" He moved forwards and she just backed away, refusing to let him come near her. He got the point and stopped. "I understand. I'm sorry for what I put you through. But can you answer me one last question?"

She reached up to wipe her tears away. She attempted a glare, but it probably didn't turn out considering that her eyes were swollen. "What is it?"

"Do you love him?"

"Yes."

Neji almost let out a sigh of relief. She had hesitated before answering, he _saw _her hesitate. There was hope after all. He smiled "Thank you."

Before Tenten knew it she was pulled into a hug much like the one on New Year's Eve. She didn't push him away as he had expected but stayed in his arms and smelling his scent. "Neji…" She began.

He pulled away from the hug and Tenten realised she didn't want him to leave. She was about to say something, but he was already at the door.

"I'm sorry for all the stress I've put you through, Tenten. I'll stay away from you from now on." He opened the door and took a step outside. "Congratulations on the engagement, you have my best wishes for a happy marriage."

Then he was gone.

Gone, probably like he had been for a year out of College. Gone.

Tenten stood as she watched his headlights pull out. Then she sank to her knees and sobbed. Now that he was back in it, she couldn't imagine life without him.

Five minutes later she made her way to the kitchen for some tea. Then she spotted it. For time in eight days she saw it, even though it'd been sitting in plain view all along.

Neji's Christmas gift to her. Still sitting on the table unopened, untouched.

Hesitantly, Tenten reached for it as if it might bite her. Carefully, she unwrapped the little box as if it might break. Slowly, she opened the lid as if she didn't want to know that it was.

"Oh wow…" Gingerly, she picked up the light gold chain of the necklace. Dangling on the chain, were little square blocks of what seemed to be pure silver. Inside the blocks was an aquamarine stone, her birthstone. In the largest box, the stone wasn't just circular like the other ones; it had a shape to it. Upon closer inspection Tenten saw it was a tiny kunai knife, exactly like the ones in the meadow Neji had showed her. The necklace must have been expensive.

Spotting a note in the mess of wrapping paper, Tenten put the necklace back in the box and unfolded the note. There she recognised Neji's elegant script.

_Merry Christmas Tenten, _

_I wasn't sure what to get you, but I hope you like my gift. The kunai in the middle is beautiful and particularly stood out to me, it reminded me of you. _

_Happy Holidays. _

_-Neji _

Then Tenten remembered the day at the mall before Christmas. Sakura had said something about Neji buying an expensive gift for a girl he had called beautiful whose birthday was on March 9th. Later, he himself had told her the girl was a brunette.

Everything matched up, how could she have been so stupid?

"Neji…" Then she laid her head in her arms and cried.

Even later, Tenten wasn't able to recall how long she spent crying that night.

* * *

**A/N:** What? What's this? What's happening?  
Why aren't they together yet?  
Is that what ya'll are thinking?  
I might just turn this into a KankTen fic...hmm ;)  
Thanks for reading! Reviewers get cookies in the shape of Neji ;D  
**fanny-kun**


	13. From Bad to Worse

**A/N:** Yay, I updated :D I feel proud.  
So I'm really busy the next two weeks for tryouts at my school, so my updating might be delayed. Sorries  
Anywaysss...there was a lot of people against KankTen xD  
Don't worry ya'll. I was just kidding :P  
So there's a twist mid-chapter. The beginning is not what it seems!  
Thanks to my reviewers! Enjoy chater thirteen :D  
**  
Disclaimer:** -insert witty disclaimer here-

* * *

"Neji? Yo, Neji! Are you listening?" 

A smack to the head woke Neji up from his reverie. "Huh? Sorry, what was that?" He'd rather been out of it lately, not really listening to other people, not really talking himself.

Naruto stared at his friend for a second and shook his head. "It's a hopeless case, Lee. He's head over heels for her."

"Yosh. We must do something, Naruto-kun! We must get Neji-kun out of this vulnerable state!" Rock Lee leaned on his crutch, having just gotten out of the hospital for another broken bone. That kid always seemed to push himself so far.

Neji, on the other hand, didn't particularly like where this conversation was going. "I'm not in a vulnerable state!" he said, irritated, "I was just thinking."

"Thinking about Tenten that is." The hyperactive blonde wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Neji had to really focus to not punch his lights out.

Sighing, Neji looked out the window. Naruto and Lee had randomly showed up at his house half-an hour ago and had not stopped pestering him about a certain brunette girl. Everyone seemed to know, but he didn't think it's been _that_ obvious, had it? "I'm not thinking about Tenten."

Well, he was trying not to. But preventing himself from going over to her place and begging her not to marry that bastard was harder than he'd thought it would be.

"Uh-huh, of course you're not. Come one, Neji! Everyone knows you're in love with her, just go and crash their wedding like they do in movies." Naruto was starting to get sick of Neji's attitude.

"No, Naruto-kun! You must not make Neji-kun crash the wedding! Weddings are sacred ceremonies." Then the green clad boy turned to his friend. "Neji-kun. You know what you must do."

Honestly, Neji had no idea what to do. He raised an eyebrow, "Er, what am I supposed to do?"

"Why, Neji-kun! I am disappointed in you! You must go to Gai-sensei! Gai-sensei has amazing abilities that will solve all your problems!" Lee looked bewildered that Neji hadn't thought of this to begin with. "Surely you know of the greatness of Gai-sensei."

"Stop calling him sensei already. It's not like he's a teacher or anything, he's just an over enthusiastic police officer. Besides, Gai is," He had to tread carefully. And bad word about Gai will make Lee go ballistic, "Unique. If I have to I'll try talking to someone who's a bit more normal, thanks."

"So I wonder if they've done it you. You know, Tenten and what's-his-face." Naruto said, as he walked over to raid the fridge. He didn't need to explain what he meant.

Neji had to really suppress the urge to punch the blonde.

"Of course they have, Naruto-kun! You forget that they already have a son." Lee said, unknowing that he was really pissing his friend off.

Now Neji had to suppress the urge to commit a murder. He could feel a vein popping in his forehead.

"Well I know that, Gejimayu(**1**), but I meant lately…"

"OUT!" Neji shouted. The vein in his forehead was bulging largely. "I want you two out of my house on the count of three. If you're still here, you really don't want to know what I'm going to do to you."

Before he even started counting he heard the front door slam and Naruto's car rear out the driveway. Sighing, the longhaired boy got up from the couch and locked the front door.

Soon, as in a minute, after the lock clicked shut the doorbell rang again. Neji's patience, which was wearing very thin to begin with, exploded. He violently pulled open the door and said, "Listen you two, if you don't leave then I'll – oh. It's you. What are you doing here?"

Kankorou stood on the front porch, looking quite taken aback by the other man's shouting episode.

"Er, well, this might be a bad time, but I came to drop this off." He handed Neji a small white envelope. His gaze was cautious as if the other man might start yelling again. "Listen, Hyu – er – Neji. I know we kinda didn't get off on the right foot, an I'm sorry for hitting you before." He held out a hand, which was glared at by accusing pale eyes.

Reluctantly, Neji shook his outstretched hand quickly as if he would get a virus if he held on too long. "Right, okay then. So what's this?" He motioned to the envelope.

"Oh. That's an invitation to our wedding."

Surprisingly, that caught Neji off guard. He didn't think Tenten would want him there. "Oh, well, thanks. I'll get back to you. Have a nice day." He didn't want to come off as rude to immediately close the door, so he waited till Kankorou had begun to shut and lock the entrance again.

Moving to his kitchen, he took a letter opened from a drawer and sliced open the envelope, noticing for the first time that his name was written on it in gold with minute writing. He slid the card out and read it.

_You're Invited to Kankorou and Tenten's Wedding! _

_Saturday, January 19 at The Church. Noon until whenever. _

_Please RSVP at: (123) 456-7890 _

_Thanks! _

Neji looked at the calendar. Today was the fifth, so the wedding would be in two weeks. He scoffed; they sure were getting things done pretty fast.

Looking at the invitation again he frowned. So far nothing was 'Tenten' about it. Knowing her, she wouldn't be one to get married in a church. She'd wait till summer, and do it outside in a field. The Church could only mean the only one in down, a little, pretty, but rundown place in front of a cemetery. Definitely not what Tenten would choose.

A rush of anger went through him. It seemed like Kankorou was doing everything himself.

Scowling, Neji tossed the invitation over his shoulder where it landed on the kitchen table. He would get back to that later.

His anger still not down yet, Neji made his way back to the living room to watch some television. It was a new record, it wasn't even noon yet and he felt like the world was turning on him.

The phone ringing at that exact moment only proved his point even more. "Hello?" It came out huffier than he had meant it to. He hoped the person on the other line wasn't offended.

"N-N-Neji." The person was unmistakeably crying. Neji started. He knew that voice.

"Tenten? What's wrong?"

There was a pause where it sounded like she was trying to catch her breath. "Neji. It's…it's my son…Haterou. He's…he's…he's…" She didn't seem to be able to finish.

"Shh, it's okay. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened." He had suddenly forgot that he was supposed to be cursing the world right now.

"Neji, he…d…d…Haterou died."

"Oh my god." Nothing else mattered to him right now other than comforting Tenten. "Tenten, stay where you are. I'm going to your house right now. Don't do anything stupid."

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say to a grieving friend, butwithout waiting for a reply, Neji slammed the phone down and bolted out the door, not even bothering to grab his jacket despite the nipping cold weather. Soon, he had parked his car in Tenten's driveway.

He decided it would be rude to burst in, so he rang the doorbell instead. When it opened, he didn't have time to say anything because Tenten had flung herself upon him. Her arms were tight around his neck as she cried into her shoulder.

Slowly, he guided her into the house and sat her down on the couch. He unravelled her arms and kneeled in front of her. "Shh, Tenten. Tell me what happened."

Tenten slowly took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I got the call this morning. They said he was in a fever last night so they gave him some sleeping pills. But sometime during the night he threw up and no one was there. The cause of death was choking on his vomit." Her sentences were barely intelligible because her sobs, but Neji got the gist of it.

He couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted, but he either kept that well hidden or she didn't notice. "So he died in the hospital room?" He was actually very proud of keeping a steady voice.

"Uh-huh." She was still sobbing. He didn't blame her; her son had just passed away.

"I'm so sorry. But listen, I know you're angry and sad but – "

"Damn right I am, Neji. They let him _die in the hospital room_! Aren't hospitals supposed to save people? He wasn't in the dying ward either, but they should have been keeping an eye on him." Tenten was now flailing her arms and shouting quite loudly.

Neji had to pin her arms to her side to get her to calm down. "Shh, I know you're sad. I am too, but you have to think of now. Plan a funeral, I'll pay for it, it's not a problem. And you might want to cancel the wedding too." He couldn't help but feel a little bit happy at the last point. "And if you really have to, then you can file a law suit at them. They should have been watching him anyways; he was five years old. You can use my lawyers; they're the best out there.

"Now calm down. I'll take you to the hospital to talk to them right after you get some rest. You look like you've stayed up all night." He let go of her arms and watched them fall limply at their sides, as if she had lost the will to move.

"Okay." She said in a little voice as she lied down. "Neji, I'm sorry about the other night. I was just really stressed and – "

Neji shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just get some rest."

"Don't leave me, please."

"It's okay, I'm right here." He held on to her hand until her eyes closed and her breathing fell steady again.

When he was positive Tenten was asleep, he went upstairs to grab a blanket for her. Guessing which room was hers, he went in and took the blanket off the bed. Then he noticed the picture on her nightstand.

It was of the two of them with Haterou on his shoulders. From an outsider's point of view, this would look like a happy family.

Only they weren't. Only everything had gone wrong in a matter of minutes.

The world really wasn't in a good mood today.

Walking back downstairs, Neji laid the blanket over Tenten and sat down on the chair next to the couch. Then he put his head in his hands and took deep breaths so he wouldn't start crying too.

How could this have happened?

* * *

**A/N:** Ah sorry, I wasn't originally planning to kill him off.  
But if I was going to unKankTen-ify this fic it needed to go out with a bang. 

(**1**)Gejimayu: Bushy Brows. Naruto was referring to Lee btw.

So the only question now is how they're gonna break up ;)  
There'll be Kanky-bashing, I can tell you that. Sorry Kankorou fans, it's the only way.  
Thanks for reading! Reviewers get Gaara shaped cookies this time ;D  
**fanny-kun**


	14. Truths Discovered

**A/N:** Sorry for the delayed update (:  
Happy Easter tomorrow!

So I've decided that this fic is coming to an end.  
I know, shocking.  
I'm thinking maybe sixteen chapters? Maybe even fifteen because I'm running out of ideas.  
Just throwing that out there.

Anyways this fic is officially unKankTen-ified. yay :D  
Sorry it this chapter's a bit short.  
Thanks to my wonderful reviewers!  
**  
Disclaimer:** I do not own anything you recognise.

* * *

Kankorou stared bemusedly at Tenten while she stared defiantly at him. This went on for several minutes.

He really wasn't really sure what was going on, Tenten had called him earlier saying something about urgently needing to talk, but he couldn't quite guess what about. After all, Haterou was his son too and he was also distressed, but most likely not as much as she was.

The brunette girl took a deep breath. "Kankorou…" She began.

But Tenten never actually got to say what she was about so say because right after she said that she was unceremoniously pushed back as Neji took her place facing Kankorou. Since she was too shocked to get a hold of her vocal cords, she settled on merely glaring at the back of his longhaired head.

"Sorry Tenten, but this isn't something a lady should to." Came his emotionless voice without turning around to look at her.

A small amount of rage boiled up in her head. "Don't tell me what a lady should and shouldn't do, you sexist pig. It's a lady's job to break up with her fiancé, not a man's."

"Wait," Kankorou started, finally getting the gist of the conversation. "You called me over to _break up with me_? And he's not letting _you_ do it? I think something fishy is going on."

Both Neji and Tenten looked at him mildly with a look at said 'no-shit-Sherlock'.

Getting to her feet and hastily pushing Neji out of the way, Tenten said. "Listen, I don't think the marriage is a good idea now. Even if it was, I won't do it. I'm not going through with the wedding when my son just died."

Kankorou's anger seemed to get the best of him as he yelled, "Yes you are! I'm getting paid for this!"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realised he'd made a mistake. Quickly swearing he said, "Wait no, it's not like that."

But the other two weren't listening. They were staring at Kankorou wide-eyes and gaping. In unison they said "You're _what_?"

"You're getting paid for this? Like what, like a bet? Am I a fucking bet?" Tenten's anger was so strong now that the only thing holding her back from pouncing on him was Neji who was grasping her shoulders tightly. "Let me go. I'm going to kill this bastard. Let me _go_, Neji!"

"Calm down Tenten. He's not worth it, be quiet and hear him out. Then you can beat him to a pulp, okay?" He was having a hard enough time not hitting Kankorou himself without holding Tenten back. Turning to the other man, Neji said in a cold voice, "You better have a good reason. Even if you do, you're not leaving here unhurt."

It was Kankorou's turn to lost his anger. "Is that a threat, Hyuuga? Are you threatening me?"

"He bloody well is." Tenten said, having finally stopped struggling. But she was still shaking with anger. "So answer the question. Am I a bet?"

Kankorou rubbed the back of his head nervously. "It's not my fault, I needed the money. I owe them money and they offered me seven hundred bucks if I could get married by the end of January. It was a good deal, and you were the only person who came to mind."

"So you were playing me for seven hundred bucks? You're disgusting, you know that? Who's this 'they' you're talking about?" Tenten was charging again, and Neji was holding her back again, but this time his eyes too were full of rage.

"Some guys at the Casino. I lost the money gambling." He stepped back a bit nervously. "Listen, I'm only telling you guys this because you look like you're about to kill me. But I'm not all to blame either, I know you've been cheating on me Tenten."

Tenten stopped struggling for a moment to ogle at him as if he were an incredibly ugly specimen from another planet. "_Cheating on you_? I wasn't cheating on you! Unlike some people, I have some dignity! And even if I were it wouldn't count as cheating, would it? Since we technically weren't together, were we?" She snarled. "Besides, who would I be cheating with anyways?"

Kankorou pointed an accusing finger at Neji. "That guy, obviously. You were always with them, you cancelled on me for him half the time."

"Who wouldn't?" Tenten said, now looking rather crazed. "Neji's a better person then you can ever dream of being!"

Before he could reply, Neji interrupted. "So you never planned on marrying Tenten? What did you intend to do after the wedding then?" Kankorou merely laughed.

"Wedding? I wasn't going to show up for the wedding, of course! I mean, why would I marry a _girl_?" He stopped laughing. "Oh shit…I did not just say that."

Time seemed to freeze then. Both Neji and Tenten froze and looked at him incredulously. Neji was the first to regain his voice. "So you're meaning to say…"

"_You're gay_?!" Tenten finished, still gaping at him. "So all this time I've not only been going out not only with someone who was using me, but someone who was gay? Since when do gay guys see straight girls? What's the world coming to?" Tenten shook her head wearily. "I need to sit down."

"Hey, what do you have against gays?" Kankorou said, indignantly, his chest heaving.

The bun-haired girl glared at him from the couch. "I have absolutely nothing against gays. But I _do_ have something against you. Death wouldn't even be a good enough punishment for people like you.

"Do you have any idea what it's like for a parent to outlive the child? Don't say anything because you didn't even know you had a son until two months ago. It's horrible, like there's a big hole right through your heart. When you came along, I thought everything would be perfect again. Haterou-chan would have his father back, and we could start over from the very beginning."

She then but her head in her hands and stayed quiet Soon, after a couple minutes of silence, it became clear to the two men that Tenten was crying. Kankorou was taken aback and simply looked at her as if she were a completely different species. "Why on earth are you _crying_?"

It was Neji that answered. "Why wouldn't she be?" He said coldly. "Her son just died, she just found out that the man she thought she loved turned out to be a dirty bastard – even though I knew it from the beginning – and because of that she no longer has any family or family-to-be. There would be something wrong if she wasn't crying."

Neji walked over to the couch and put an arm around Tenten who leaned on his shoulder and sobbed. "You better go now Kankorou, because I assure you that if I ever see you again…well let's just say you will no longer be attached to your limbs."

Without any further ado, the front door opened and shut and Kankorou disappeared. Neji held Tenten tightly until she finally calmed down.

"Neji, do you still not believe in fate?" She said quietly, still leaning on his shoulder.

The question was so thrown out there that it caught him off guard. "Yes, I still believe that there is no such thing as fate. There is a path picked out for people, and people cannot stray from that path."

Tenten laughed weakly. "Yeah, you're still the same as you were in school." She buried her face in his shirt. "But I think fate does exist, Neji. I think that it might not give people choices, but it makes choices for people that they didn't even know they had. Does that make sense?" Neji nodded slightly, still wondering where this was leading. "I also think it was fate that we ran into each other in November. I don't think it was a coincident, I think it was done on purpose."

"On purpose? Really? Because I think running into you was quite accidental, you gave me a bruise where your shopping bag hit me, you know." Neji smiled remembering as Tenten laughed again.

"Well, let's call it purposely accidental, shall we?"

"Let's."

And that was the end of that conversation as well. It was silent again, as the two deliberated on their own thoughts.

"Tenten?"

"Mm?" She said, sounding as if she was close to falling asleep on him.

Neji hesitated for a moment. "I love you."

"I know. I love you too." She said, still sounding sleepy. Neji sighed in relief; she didn't hesitate like she did when she said she loved Kankorou.

Still, there was another thing on his mind. "Tenten?" He repeated.

"Mm?" She mumbled again, this time sounding slightly less patient.

"Marry me."

Time stopped for a moment. Tenten sat up, completely awake now, and looked at Neji as if in awe.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." She closed her eyes and groaned exasperatedly. "Didn't we just have that whole scene with Kankorou because I said I _didn't_ want to get married? Is there something wrong with your hearing?"

To her surprise, Neji smirked. "That hurts you know, I proposed and you asked if I was joking or not." He then laughed at her incredulous expression. "Don't worry, I was just throwing it out there. I wanted to see how you would react."

"Hyuuga Neji! A proposition is _not_ the kind of question you just throw around. I actually – mmfg."

But what Tenten actually did was left undiscovered as just then Neji had swooped down and locked his lips with hers. To his great happiness, she responded eagerly. The kiss gradually grew into more.

Slowly, Tenten leaned back and Neji leaned forwards. His hand, which was placed lightly on her hip, slowly made its way up her shirt, gently caressing the skin on her stomach. He had expected her to protest, but to his pleasant surprise she responded by kissing deeper. She wrapped one arm tightly around his neck while she used the other ones to undo the buttons to her blouse and try to lift up his shirt at the same time.

Neji's hair had come undone from the string holding it in a loose ponytail and now hung on either side of Tenten as a veil – making her jealous of it's softness – as his mouth left hers to trail kisses along her jawbone and down her neck.

Soon enough, their clothes were no more than a heap on the ground.

**

* * *

**

**A/N:** Oooh suggested sex ;)  
Sorry to dissapoint, but I'm not the lemony kind of authoress.  
Despite them finally being together and Kankorou turning out gay, I didn't really like this chapter.  
Feedback's appreciated :D  
Thanks for reading!  
**fanny-kun**


	15. Happy Endings are Love

**A/N:** Kay, so this is technically the last chapter.  
It's so short! I'm sorry!  
BUT there will be an epilogue :D  
So no worries, no worries.

Thanks to my reviewers!  
Enjoy chapter 15 :D  
**  
Disclaimer:** Currently Owning: NOTHING

* * *

It was raining outside; the sky was crying.

Only one person stood in the room next to the coffin. Nearly everyone else had cleared out of the funeral home, the ceremony having already been finished.

Tenten was almost unrecognisable. The two buns that were her signature hairstyle had vanished, letting her chocolaty brown locks hand down loosely past her shoulders, held away from her face by two hairpins on either side. Her vividly coloured and casual clothes had vanished as well, being replaced by a dreary and lacy black dress along with dress shoes. No make-up adorned her face as it usually did. Overall, her appearance made her look like an overgrown crying little girl.

Shakily, she raised one hand, which looked extremely pale against the long-sleeved satin of the dress, and touched the nameplate gently: as a mother would to a child.

**Medashi Haterou**

The dates of birth and death had yet to be engraved, yet there was no mistaking what the nameplate stood on.

A gravestone.

Finally, after holding it in for the whole procession, Tenten knelt over and burst into tears. She didn't know how long it'd been when somebody came up to her and knelt down beside her.

"Are you Hat-chan's mommy?"

Tenten stopped sobbing and looked up to stare into a pair of wide and curious blue eyes belong to a small girl with long red hair. Wiping her face, Tenten put on a forced smile. "Yes. What's your name?"

"My name is Aashi Rikka. I know how to spell if forwards and backwards. I also have a pet goldfish named Obi." Rikka gave a cute little-girlish laugh. The dreary black dress she had on really didn't suit her personality.

Before Tenten could respond, another woman walked into the room. "Rikka! There you are, don't go running off like that!" and then she turned to Tenten and smiled kindly, holding a hand out. "Hi. I'm Aashi Nami. You must be Tenten, right? Rikka's told me a lot about your son, they seemed to be very good friends. I'm really sorry."

Smiling, Tenten took the woman's hand. "It's okay. Thanks for your concern."

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Name started uncertainly, "But how old are you? I hadn't expected you to be so young." She herself looked to be in her early thirties, approximately ten years older than Tenten herself.

"Not at all. I'm twenty-two. But I hope you don't judge me on that, I loved Haterou more than anything. I still do." She smiled as she ruffled Rikka's soft hair.

Name looked taken aback. "Oh, no. No, of course not. It's a mother's job, isn't it? To put their child first." Then the woman, who had the same blue eyes as her daughter, looked over to the coffin. "Are you married then?"

Nearly laughing at the irony, Tenten held up her left hand, which was ring free. "Actually I was engaged a while ago, to Haterou-chan's father believe it or not, but I made it clear to that snivelling bastard that if he so much as ever talked to me again he'll regret it. So no, I find men too troublesome for that."

"That's not very nice, is it?" both women turned to see Neji walking towards him, his black suit making him look like he belonged at a ball rather than at a funeral. He walked up and kissed Tenten's cheek, then holding a hand out to Nami. "I'm Hyuuga Neji."

"Aashi Nami." She was looking at him in a way that a woman shouldn't look at a man who was ten years younger. Tenten suddenly got the urge to grab Neji's head and say 'he's mine', but somehow she resisted. "Well it was lovely to meet you, Tenten, Neji." She smiled again. Then turning to Tenten she gave the younger woman a slip of paper. "I couldn't imagine how you must be feeling, but if you ever want to come over, just for tea even, feel free to give me a call. Bye-bye now."

With that, Nami walked away pulling her daughter, who was yelling "Bye-bye Tenten-chan-san." Behind her.

Neji slid his arm around Tenten's waist. "Let's go, shall we? We're being waited on. They're expecting dinner, you know."

"Dinner?" Tenten asked following him to the hall. When she looked at her watch, she started. "Oh wow. It's six already. Who's waiting?"

Before he could answer her question, Tenten was pounced on. All she could see though the tight hugs were bundles of pink and blonde hair. Ino pulled away, her make-up smudged and cheeks tear-stained. "Oh Tens, I honestly can't imagine what you're going though. I couldn't stop crying!"

"Calm, Ino. Calm. There's a such thing as sadness beyond tears you know." It was silent, and no one seemed to know what to say.

Finally, Neji broke the silence. "Well there's no point in the eight of us just standing here. Why don't we go change and meet somewhere for dinner?"

"Sounds cool. How about Chinese?" Naruto began excitedly, but shut up as soon as Sakura elbowed him in the ribs. Tenten grinned slightly at this, the next time she had Chinese food would be too soon.

"Why don't we go to that new Italian restaurant? I hear there's a really sexy waiter there." Ino said grinning. Then she turned to walk out the door, dragging Shikamaru by the elbow on the way. "Meet you all there in an hour."

Everyone dispersed, and Tenten followed Neji out the door. She didn't trust herself with her car, if she wasn't a great driver before there was no telling what might happen to the vehicle after intense emotional stress.

She got in the passenger side of Neji's BMW, still envying it's awesome aura of awesomeness, and waited for Neji to start the car. The ride home to her house was comfortable, small talk on the weather and such.

They pulled in to her driveway. "Don't you need to go home too, to get changed and all?"

"No, I had a feeling this was coming. I have clothes in the back, saving gas, you know." Even as he said this Neji walked to his trunk to pull out a plastic bag. He locked the doors and followed her inside.

Tenten opened the door and let him in. "I'll be upstairs. It'll probably take me about half and hour to get ready. So wait here, watch some TV or something."

"Sure. Half an hour? Does getting dressed really take that long?"

She gave him a dirty look. "It's more than just getting dressed, you know."

"Sure, sure. Whatever. I'll wait here." As he said this, Neji settled himself comfortably on the couch. "Before you go upstairs, I was wondering. What are you going to do now? Wouldn't your house seem really empty?"

By now, Tenten had already reached the base of the steps. "I'm not sure. I'll probably move out and room with Ino, or something."

"You could come live with me." Neji stated casually, as he flicked on the television. "Free of charge. My house it too big anyways."

"Er, thanks…? Wouldn't that kind of give off the wrong vibe though?"

Neji shrugged, eyes still glued to the screen even though he wasn't taking in anything he was watching. "Just a suggestion. You could think on it."

Without another word, Tenten went up the stairs.

When he could no longer here her, Neji pressed the mute button on the remote and listened carefully.

Sure enough, a moment later there was a loud squeal and footsteps racing down the stairs. Before Neji had time to prepare for anything, Tenten was on top of him hugging his neck tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you! Yes! Yes!" she got off of him and proudly thrust her left hand towards him. On the fourth finger was an engagement ring; with a diamond even larger than the one that Kankorou had given her.

Neji grinned and shrugged. "It was bound to end up happening anyways."

After much more squealing, Tenten went upstairs to get ready, admiring the ring on her finger. Somehow it was much more beautiful than its predecessor.

Half and hour later, Tenten was downstairs. Dressed in a, tight, light blue shirt with a plunging neckline and jeans that were tucked into her boots, she was ready to go. And go they did, after a slight comment on Neji's casual everyday dress consisting of a tee shirt and jeans.

The Italian restaurant was indeed nice, and the waiter was indeed hot.

Tenten was actually surprised Ino wasn't throwing herself at him; instead she seemed rather controlled and holding hands with Nara Shikamaru. We must expect the unexpected.

Actually, Tenten and Neji getting engaged wasn't really unexpected to anyone, minus possibly Naruto.

Everyone actually got them a gift. Even though Ino took credit for it.

Neji's eyebrow twitched as he opened it.

A box of condoms.

* * *

****

A/N:

not as spectacular as I'd hoped.  
The epilogue will be longer :D  
Thanks for reading!  
Reviewers get Kakashi shaped cookies this time ;)  
**fanny-kun**


	16. The Meaning of Life

**A/N:** I have an excuse for it being this late.  
I really do, I just don't have one for this being so short.  
My internet was down!  
SO HA!  
Kay I'm good (:

So here goes all this final chapter blah  
Thanks to my reviewers: _Wulfeh, Princess of Storms, Mysterious Smiles, xNanoux, DemonicAngel08, Kinaro, ninjafrogofHNM, Shikyo no Amatsu Shinsei, The Square, ueitenten, AngeChen, yellowlightning, CaffineFreePepsi, I Can Hear the Sea, mappsgo, Nightshadow Dweller, shining kitsune, shy-but-strong64, SomeRandomThing, Weaponhero, xxMaNgAmAnIaxx, _and _Merciless Ruby  
_Also thanks to my anon. reviewers!  
And to people who added my fic to their favourites and alerts!:D  
And most of all for people who stuck with it until the end!

Thankyou alll!!  
Enjoy the epilogue (:  
**  
Disclaimer:** no ownage.

* * *

Neji had never quite fully understood the saying 'it feels like an eternity'.

Sure he had heard it many times before, everyone has. But it was a cliché, and like all cliché's, our favourite Hyuuga just merely stored it in the back of his mind never expecting it to take any part whatsoever in his life.

Today was different though.

Today was a very important day in Neji's life, perhaps on of the most important. Well, important emotionally at least; he doubted the whole world was going to celebrate the day _the_ Hyuuga Neji became a father.

Well, him being him and all, maybe that wasn't very highly unlikely.

Anyways, back to the point.

_The _Hyuuga Neji was going to be a father. In a matter of minutes to be exact.

Actually, more like in the matter of half an hour, but whatever.

Yet, being the man he was, Neji excused himself from Tenten's – yes, _the_ Tenten. And their child will be _the_ child – hospital room to calm down is raging nerves dancing around in a mixture of excitement and dread. Mainly excitement though, so no worries.

And then the question popped up in his head, like all questions do. _Were they too young_? Young as in twenty-three years old, happily married and living like they were ten years plus their age?

All their other friends were still out partying. Well that was mainly Ino, Kiba, and Naruto, so it might not count.

"Neji! Eternal Rival, are you ready for your big day?" The loud yelling brought the longhaired Hyuuga out of his reverie, and it earned him a couple dirty looked from the nurses as if the bowl haired and thick browed man yelling to him was his fault.

"Shut up, Lee. You're in a hospital." Neji said, sitting back down on the bench he had evacuated while standing up.

Lee's eyes went wide, wider than normal if possible. He spoke in a quieter voice, barely above a whisper. "I greatly apologise, my Sworn Enemy. I merely came to see if our Flower was okay." At this, he gave his cheesy thumbs up sign. Neji wondered when he became friends with this guy.

"Tenten's fine. The baby's due in about fifteen minutes." _Shit_! There was only fifteen minutes left? Last time Neji checked there had been a full half hour. Was he really that engrossed in his thoughts? Wow, he was starting to be, like, un-Hyuuga like. "Speaking of which, I've got to go Lee. See you."

At least he'd been Hyuuga-like in keeping his cool. If he'd lost his ability to keep cool under situations then…well we really wouldn't know what would happened because it's never happened before.

Before he knew it, Neji was once again in front of Tenten's hospital room. After a quick breath to calm himself down, he walked inside the door.

Turned out that his kid would be coming out twelve minutes early.

Neji thought that this might be some kind of omen, that his child would always be twelve minutes early for everything. God, if that was true then he felt really bad for the kid.

Aside from random punctual thoughts, Neji walked over to Tenten's bedside to hold her hand. He used up very much will power not to punch the doctor – who was a man, for the record. He didn't think that men should be helping give birth to babies – who had his hands in between Tenten's legs.

"I see the top of the head. Now push, sweetie. Push."

Tenten groaned as Neji's eyebrow twitched. Did that doctor just call his wife 'sweetie'? Was the doctor flirting with her? Or was he, Neji, just being overprotective.

Most likely it was Neji being overprotective.

As he was immersed in his thoughts once more, the next thing he realised was his child – his daughter – was now out and crying. Next to him, Tenten grinned widely as she panted, still holding Neji's hand tightly.

They had already discussed names earlier.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

_"I still can't think of a good name." Tenten pouted as she put away yet another book titled _Baby Names_. "I mean, it can't be too common, nor can it be too weird either. It has to be perfect." They had the ultrasound a couple days ago, so they knew it would be a girl._

_But either way, the middle name was going to be Haterou. _

_Neji shrugged from beside her on the couch. "I still like that one that Naruto thought of. What was it, Twotwo or something? Maybe it was Eighteight."_

_"Haha." She said dryly, even though there was a smile threatening to form on her lips. "Very funny. Just so you know, I like my name very much."_

_"I do too. I like everything about you very much."_

_"That was so cheesy, it wasn't even funny."_

_"Ah well. I try."_

_Then there was silence. Tenten busy thinking up baby names, Neji pretending to. Wasn't he so sweet?_

_"Haterou should be the middle name." He said suddenly, having just been looking at a photo of the young deceased boy._

_Tenten smiled sadly. "Yeah, I miss him. Okay, so Haterou as the middle name it is, even though it's a girl." She thought for another moment. "How about Kisa? I think Kisa is a cute name."_

_But Neji shook his head. "No, it doesn't sound right. Hyuuga Kisa…"_

_They both sighed. It had been like this for the past who knows how long. One of them would think of a name, then the other would deject it. It was like a cycle. _

_"Meihua? It means beautiful flower. I think it fits." Neji said._

_But Tenten didn't just shake her head, she groaned. "No. Nothing with 'flower'. I swear, Lee will keep calling her that for the rest of her life and the poor girl will never have a moment's peace. I like it and all, but let's stray to a different path, kay?"_

_"Kasuke…?" Tenten suggest feeble, expecting Neji to contradict that one as well. _

_But he didn't. Which was actually quite an amazing feat in itself. _

_"I kind of like that one, actually. It's nice."_

_"Is 'nice' the highest praise I'll get?" Tenten said, the smile that had been tugging at her lips had escaped. _

_Neji's smile mirrored hers. "Yep. I like it. Hyuuga Haterou Kasuke. It fits."_

_Tenten grinned. Then "Oh." She said in a surprised tone, placing a hand on her bulging tummy in which the baby had just kicked. "Haha, I think she likes the name too."_

_Hyuuga Haterou Kasuke._

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The baby's cry echoed throughout the room. "Shh," Tenten said soothingly. "Shh, it's okay."

Miraculously, the little girl stopped crying as soon as she was in Tenten's arms. But as soon as Neji took the baby, she started bawling again, causing his wife to laugh and take her back.

"Hello Kasuke." She tickled the baby's nose, which was still a bright pinkish colour.

"She's beautiful." Neji said, putting an arm around Tenten and using the other to stroke the baby who was gazing at them with curiously large eyes.

"She is. She's ours."

* * *

**A/N:** OMG!  
THE END!

wooww, I never actually expected to finish this.  
xD  
Well then.  
Thanks for reading!  
I love y'all!!  
**fanny-kun**


End file.
